A KogaNue School Story
by UnendingEmpire
Summary: Welcome to Tohohana High, where students of all sorts attend, learn, and all that other school stuff I don't remember so well. In this particular fic, a new student arrives at school, and just on the first day, she gets detention, a kick in the face, and a brand new and unlikely friend. Just what is the new girl's secret, though?
1. Chapter 1: New Student

**Remember in my new KaguMoko fic where I said something about a KogaSana school story? Well, that's not happening. I've written that pairing too many damn times already (since when is two too much, and doesn't that mean I've also done too much KaguMoko?) and I like my portrayals for both Nue and Kogasa, not to mention that I've never done a KogaNue fic.**

**This one in particular is off to a nice start, if not a tad choppy at some points in the chapter. For the most part, I'm going to be focusing on this "school story" series I have going, and if anybody can think of other pairings they'd like to see in a school setting like this, don't hesitate to say something. A MariAri fic is certainly happening at some point, so don't bother saying probably the most popular Marisa pairing ever.**

* * *

"Now then," the teacher said, standing next to a new student. "We have a new student. Go on, introduce yourself."

"Um…"

"Don't be shy. Tell the class who you are."

"…h-hello," the new girl said, looking nervously at a whole classroom full of desks. The only empty seat in the room was in the far back, between a window and a girl who looked like she was up to no good judging by her posture. The girl next to the empty seat - no doubt where this new student would be placed - slouched in her seat and didn't look like she was paying that much attention. "M-My name's…"

"We don't have all day," the troublemaker-looking girl in the back said. "We all had to do this little ritual as well, so get on with it."

_I__'__m going to sit next to her? I don__'__t like this__…_

"Be quiet, Houjuu," the teacher said. "She's probably scared out of her skin. I've been told that she hasn't been to a public school in a very long time, being home schooled up until just now."

"Oh yeah? Hey, new girl, where do you live? I'd like to meet your old teacher~"

"Hush!"

"Fine," the girl labeled as just Houjuu bitterly said.

"My name's…Kogasa Tatara," the new girl finally said. A lot of people started saying things. Some of them were staring straight into her eyes, probably trying to figure out why the one on the right could be such a bright sky blue, and the other such a bright bloody red. Kogasa didn't really blame them; if she saw somebody with eyes like hers, she'd probably be even more straightforward and outright ask them "What happened to your eye?" Actually, Kogasa was pretty sure she heard some people ask their friends that exact question. Other phrases Kogasa heard included "She's cute," "She doesn't look like she was home schooled," and "I wouldn't mind showing her around~"

"Tell us a little bit about yourself, Kogasa," the teacher happily said.

"W-Well, for starters, I do want to say _one_ thing…I'm actually a boy."

_SHOCK!_

"…"

"…so you're a cross-dresser," the Houjuu girl in the back said. "I'm not sure where you're from, but you're in _Tohohana_ now. If you want to surprise us, you'd have to pretty much drop your skirt and panties and flash your business right in everybody's eyes."

"…"

* * *

**Not long after; principal****'****s office****…**

"Let me get this straight," the principal said, still rather unable to believe he was hearing things correctly. "You dropped your skirt and panties, and flashed your business right in everybody's eyes?"

"…y-yes, sir," Kogasa said, feeling a massive wave of guilt, nausea, and embarrassment fill her up from head to toe. "Which, um, brings me to why she's here with me," the new student continued, pointing to the Houjuu girl next to her. Along the way, somebody had called her Nue. Nue Houjuu, then. "It was her that gave me the idea."

"You little snitch," Nue exclaimed.

"See, ever since I was a baby, I've always enjoyed surprising people, and it became part of my nature when I started going to school. Only, lots of people didn't like it, and lots of times I got beat up, so I was home schooled because of it. Now that I'm in a public school again…"

"I get it," Nue said. "She couldn't resist her urge to surprise somebody, and took a suggestion the moment it presented itself without taking the time to think it over. Even if it was instinctual and subconscious, though, that doesn't change that she got in a big heap of trouble, and that giving people ideas isn't a school offense."

"Somebody as bright as you should have better grades," the principal said, looking straight at Nue. "It's such a waste that you don't even try. However, your inappropriate statement is just as much an offense as what Kogasa here did because of it. Therefore, I'm putting the two of you in detention for the remainder of the day and for two hours afterwards."

"That's crazy," Nue protested. "How come I have to go too?"

"I thought I just explained that."

"Tch. Way to go, new girl."

* * *

**Six (?) hours later; detention****…**

"…"

"Hm…h-hey, I'm-"

"Quiet," Nue snapped. "You got me in a big heap of trouble because you couldn't keep your mouth shut. If you were about to say what I think you were - _oh, let__'__s be friends_ - I should warn you that you're making a shitty first impression. Goody two-shoes girls like you just get on my nerves and make want to kick somebody in the face."

"Oh, then they'd see _your_ panties! Ha-ha…ha…"

"…" _Ka-POW!_

"I can see your panties," Kogasa weakly squeaked, just moments before falling right out of her seat and onto the floor with a face covered in blood.

* * *

**Right back to the office****…**

"Twice in one day? That's a new record," the principal said, looking over the contents of one binder or another with important stuff inside it, probably. "Even for you, Nue. Now, if I'm hearing this right, you kicked Kogasa square in the nose." That was actually leagues more believable than the last story. The ice pack being held against Kogasa's nose kind of helped that notion a little bit. "…I don't know what to do with you. I'm extending your detention by another hour today, and you'll be in there for the whole school day plus three hours every day for the next two weeks. Is that-"

"Wait," Kogasa exclaimed. "Don't do it."

"Hm?"

"Don't punish Nue. It's not her fault."

"…" Now the eyes of both the principal and Nue were looking right at Kogasa. The principal seemed curious, and Nue seemed…happy? Overwhelmed? Awe-struck? Probably a combination of all three. Kogasa's first impression was a lousy one in Nue's eyes, but now that she was making a second impression…it didn't seem like Kogasa was _too_ bad after all. "Please explain," Nue said. "Why's this not my fault?"

"B-Because…Nue never really kicked me. We were going to the bathroom, and I slipped on a wet floor and slammed my face on the counter. It hurt a lot, and I was crying lots before Nue ran to grab me an ice pack, but if I take it easy, I should be alright by the time I leave."

"…" _She__'__s standing up for me? After I got her detention and kicked her in the face just a few hours later? If I were in her shoes, and she were in mine, I__'__d probably try to get her suspended for a few days, or even expelled if I cried hard enough. But she__'__s trying to get me out of trouble__…__I don__'__t get it._

"Is this true, Nue?" Now the eyes of the principal moved over to Nue. "Is that really what happened?"

"…yes, sir," Nue said. "I just had to wash my face up a little, and the detention teacher said I had to take Kogasa with me. When she slipped, my first reaction was to run as fast as I could to get an ice pack, then I cleaned up the water on the floor and the blood on the counter. I get why you heard that I kicked her, though. After all, she ratted me out earlier today, and my grudges are infamous in this school. I guess everybody has at least a little good in them," Nue concluded, looking over to Kogasa a little as she finished her statement. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to take Kogasa home."

"We'll call her parents to pick her up," the principal said, reaching for the phone.

"Wait!"

"What's wrong, Kogasa?"

"They, u-um…don't have a car. I walk to school every day."

"I should at least call-"

"We don't have a phone, either. I-I mean, we _did_, but we all shared a cell phone and I lost it at a store the other day, and somebody else picked it up and stole it by the time I found out where I lost it."

"Then we should call it."

"You've got a pretty weak story," Nue whispered to Kogasa. "Lemme guess; you and your folks don't really have a phone, but you don't want the principal to know?"

"Yeah," Kogasa whispered back.

"I need you to tell me the number," the principal said to Kogasa. "It would be a good way to find your stolen phone."

"Like that would work, sir," Nue said, sounding a little amused that he'd actually try that. "I've stolen phones before - I got suspended for it once if you recall - and when you steal somebody's phone, the very first thing you're supposed to do is change everything about that phone until you can't even tell the last person owned it. Change the number, buy a new cover, delete every image and ringtone the thing has and replace them with your own, and the instant you think somebody's onto you, destroy the phone. Call if you want, but it's not going to work."

"…then I'll need your address," the principal said. "I'll drive you home personally."

"O-Oh, we moved," Kogasa said nervously. "Between the day that we filled out the paperwork and my first day here, we moved. We were already packing then, you see. That address there isn't where I live anymore."

"Then what's your new address?"

"You can't expect her to know that so soon after moving," Nue said. "What person memorizes their address so soon after moving? Would it be okay if she wrote it down when she got home and delivered it to you tomorrow?"

"I suppose…but we can't let her just leave here alone. No telling what kind of trouble that could start."

"I'll walk her home," Nue promised. "If I'm not back here before the school day's over, you can extend my detention however long you want, and even suspend or expel me if you want, and I'll even leave my bag as collateral." The principal looked pretty skeptical. He had every reason to, of course. Nue, offering to help somebody else? For the whole of her three years here, Nue had proven to be a violent, aggressive, trouble-causing, badmouthing, selfish, ignorant, problematic student with a criminal record since before she came to this school. Not once in her time here had Nue done anything to benefit anybody but herself, but her offer sounded pretty foolproof. Even she would have trouble getting out of this one, should her plan have included ditching school.

"…I accept your offer," the principal said, grabbing the bag that sat next to Nue's seat in the room. It was a school-assigned one, just like Kogasa's and those of most students here. With the bag safely on the principal's side of the desk, he said "You two can go. Nue, I expect to see you here within the next ninety minutes."

"You've got it."

"Or you're suspended out of school for two weeks."

"Understood." With that, Nue helped Kogasa out of her seat, and stepped out of the office. When the two were safely off of school grounds, Nue would have to make certain to thank Kogasa for not ratting her out again, and apologize for kicking her face. "How's your ice pack?"

"Cold," Kogasa commented.

"Good." Once the duo stepped out of the school's front door, Nue asked "Do you want me to carry that bag for you?"

"Thank you, Nue. It's heavier than I remember."

"I'd imagine," the black-haired girl slyly said as she slung the bag over her shoulder.

* * *

**15 minutes later; Tohohana park****…**

"Your place is pretty out of the way," Nue commented. "And last I checked, everything past here is business; all the houses are clear the other way. Oh, are you getting thirsty?"

"A little…"

"Here," Nue said, fishing into the bag she'd taken from Kogasa's shoulders earlier, and pulling out two bottles of water. After handing one to Kogasa, she said "Thanks, by the way. For not ratting me out. And…I'm sorry I kicked you."

"And I'm sorry for getting you in trouble in the first place…hey, wait a minute!"

"Yeah?"

"My bag was empty!"

"Oh, it was empty? Cool. I would've felt bad if you had some personal thing in there you didn't want anybody knowing about, like an old teddy bear or something."

* * *

**Principal****'****s office, one last time****…**

"This actually feels kind of light…like it's empty." Just to confirm it with himself, the man flipped the bag open, and…absolutely nothing in the bag, but a single label.

Grade 11, Class C, Tatara Kogasa, it read. "…"

* * *

**Nue, you little fiend!**

**I think I said that once before…**

**Regardless, all my school stories are taking place in an imaginary town called Tohohana, which has a far better summary in my KaguMoko fic. It's like, if Japan was New York, you know how NYC has Chinatown? Tohohana is like Japan's America-town. Make a bit more sense like that?**

**Also, other pairings I plan on writing in this odd school setting include…**

**AyaMiji, ReiSana, RemiSaku, and others. None of these are certain, of course. If you feel like seeing a certain pairing, see what school uniform images you can dig up, send them my way, and I'll see what happens. If you can't find an image with the two together, on the other hand, just find one each of each paired character you want to see :D just remember, I'm trying to only use each character ONCE**


	2. Chapter 2: Extreme Home Makeover

**This feels like one of those dialogue-heavy chapters to me. That just happens once in a while; everybody has those chapters from time to time. Right?**

**Nue and Kogasa both get a little development in this chapter, and we get to see things that we haven't yet seen. There's also an important piece of foreshadowing in this chapter. VERY important. If you think you know what the important foreshadowing is by the end of this chapter, feel free to say so. I won't confirm or deny your claims, but it's always fun to guess anyway~**

**One of the new girl's secrets I mentioned in the description (even though it says she only has one) gets revealed here, but I have a few more surprises up my sleeve for the surprise youkai. Let's see, if this story spans a five-day period…Nue and Kogasa are in for a pretty crazy five days XD**

* * *

"You'd better be pulling my leg," Nue said, looking at the building in front of the two. It was an old warehouse, formerly used to store frozen materials like donated blood or ice cream, but it was abandoned some years ago after the cooler malfunctioned. Now the inside of the warehouse was vacant at all time, save maybe some boxes laying around. Even rats didn't live there; since the cooler malfunction, it was too cold. "Kogasa, if you live in this warehouse, I'm going to personally kick you into unconsciousness and take you back to my place."

"Oh, no, I don't live in the warehouse," the new girl nervously said. "I live right there," she said, pointing next to the door of the warehouse.

"…that's still the warehouse."

"No, next to the door!" Next to the door was the last thing Nue had ever expected to see, especially when it was the supposed home of the new student. A cardboard box. It looked big enough to fit Kogasa in an uncomfortable-looking pinch, and it probably came from inside the warehouse itself, but…it was a cardboard box!

"Nuh-uh. You're not living here," Nue said, grabbing Kogasa by the arm and pulling her away from her precious box. "Follow me; you're about to get adopted."

"A-Adopted?" For a short moment, Kogasa's face seemed to come more alive than it ever seemed in Nue's presence…for a short moment. Once a certain realization hit her, the smile on her face sank and faded. "What are your parents like?"

"I live with my uncle; my dad's younger brother. He's not all that bad, really, once you get used to him."

"What about before then?" That "once you get used to him" bit worried Kogasa a little. Was he mean? Alcoholic? There were so many potential negative traits that frightened Kogasa all running through her head by the dozen, and it was almost enough to make her try to force her way out of Nue's grip and run back to her box as it faded further away. "What's he like before you get used to him?"

"Still pretty cool. I mean, he's not perfect or anything - far from it - but I've heard that he's where I got my smarts." That was without a doubt. Nue's uncle was very bright, even if he didn't show it in his mannerisms, but he had flaws just like everybody. He wasn't afraid to say something completely inappropriate, and often made important decisions with coin tosses. There was also his past charges for attempting (and in three cases, succeeding) to seduce girls from Nue's school for which he was still on parole, and there were rumors that he once stabbed and killed a man…but hey, nobody's perfect. "On the upside, he has a freaking awesome job that keeps the two of us comfy and happy."

"What kind of job does he have?" The way Nue sounded when she talked about her uncle suggested a respectable position, like a business executive or even a doctor. Or perhaps he was a government agent! That would be odd, what with Nue being the little delinquent Kogasa had made her out to be.

"He's a heavy metal drummer and vocalist. Did you ever hear of the band YHZ-Saga?"

"Um…no."

"He's their drummer and lead singer. He's also the H in the band, for Houjuu, and he's not really home that much." YHZ-Saga was a band between two important milestones. They were between "Very popular" and "Famous" on the scale of fan base sizes, so lots of times, Nue's uncle was out touring. Of course, given that he was the man who raised her throughout her entire life, it was probably a big factor as to why such a formerly sweet girl turned into a complete delinquent who was probably going to get expelled next time she entered the school building. Which was pretty much her plan from the start. As Nue and Kogasa started going back through the local park, the delinquent girl wondered what her uncle would say when word got to him that Nue had been expelled, assuming she even did. With any luck, it would be "So, YHZ-Saga is looking for a new bassist…"

"Are you sure your uncle will be okay with me living with you?"

"He usually doesn't care about that kind of stuff as long as you don't trash the place. And if he _does_ say something, just say your house burned down and I volunteered to let you stay with us because we've been school friends for a long time." Her uncle was always a sucker for a sad or touching story, and Nue avoided countless heaps of trouble in the last two years by taking advantage of that exact weakness. It probably wasn't nice, but Nue wanted to not get in trouble at home if at all possible; she wanted to get into trouble _everywhere else_. As the two passed a bench, Nue saw a wallet on the bench. Not far away, she saw a father pushing his son on the swing. Neither of them were facing the bench, nor was anybody else. _I__'__ll just take that_, Nue mentally told herself as she subtly slid the wallet off the bench and into her school bag.

"I can't believe you just did that," Kogasa whispered.

"At least you're whispering. It's his fault for letting his wallet slip out of his pocket without him noticing."

"Still, what would drive you to do such a thing?"

"I'm a kleptomaniac," Nue plainly answered, as though she were relaying extremely commonplace information. "I've stolen some pretty weird things before, too. One time, about a year ago, I'd been trying to not steal anything for a month, and broke down two days before the 30-day mark, and walked home that day with five bags of popcorn from the grocery store, a box of candy from the pharmacy, two full sets of rainwear that I'm not even sure where they came from, and a few pieces of…ahem, _special_ outfitting from a shop that kicked me out when they noticed I was under eighteen."

"That's a pretty strange shopping list," Kogasa said. It didn't sound like there was any particular theme with those items, though. Like she just grabbed things at random. Then again, it was probably exactly what she did.

"What about you?"

"Hm?"

"Everybody's got something up in their head. I like to take things that don't belong to me, and I don't think being homeless quite counts as a mental condition."

"Oh, I'm scared of…dogs."

"Dogs?"

"Yeah, I'm actually terrified of them. When I was little, I had a bad run-in with a big scary-looking dog, and I've been afraid of them ever since. I'm also scared of thunder and the dark."

"Aw, you're like a little kid~"

"H-Hey, I'm not a kid!"

"You'll be fine," Nue teased, patting Kogasa on the head as though she were exactly that. A little child. "You've just gotta hang in there and not be afraid, and you'll grow up to be big and strong just like your daddy."

"Quit it!'

"You'll both be so strong together, eh? Like father, like daughter~"

_SLAP!_

"…"

"I'm sorry," Kogasa said, facing away from Nue when she realized what she'd just done. "I lost control and I shouldn't have. I couldn't stand hearing about him like that, though."

"Hey, I'm sorry too, okay? I didn't know you had such a personal bone about your old man. Guess we've both got that problem, huh?" Nue's mother at least had the decency to pop in once every couple months or so to see how her little girl was doing, but at each visit, the father was nowhere to be seen; not even to visit his own brother who was raising his daughter for him. "So what did yours do?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, if that's alright."

"Say no more. Everybody's got some skeletons in their closet, and we're no different. And before I forget, I have to tell you something important."

"Oh?"

"If I'm not in class tomorrow, it's because I'm probably getting expelled next time I enter the school building. I've been getting on the principal's nerves since freshman year started, and I think swapping our bags like that was the last straw." Then again, she was also pretty sure that setting the cafeteria on fire three months ago was the last straw, as well as a year ago when she let loose a whole box full of snakes loose in the teacher's lounge. There was also that one time in the girl's locker room about three weeks ago, but…that actually wasn't entirely Nue's fault. The other girl was just as guilty in that one. And the coach _conveniently_ forgot to say anything about it.

"Are you alright over there?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking about this little incident from a few weeks back. Have you ever been in the girl's locker room?"

"No. I was in the classroom for about thirty seconds, then we were in detention for six hours and then we left. Why?"

"Never forget this. That locker room is probably the safest place in the entire school. Deadbolts on the big heavy doors, everything's built into the floor or walls, no windows, and it's altogether pretty impenetrable if you lock it up tight. Keep that in mind, okay? It might come in handy later."

"I will."

"Actually, during my freshman year, there was this student that went completely off her rocker and started shooting everybody. Everybody, boys and girls both, were quickly escorted to that locker room. I remember that the senior class was completely unaware, and…well, subtly, the boys enjoyed the view they got."

"What's this got to do with the locker room being safe?"

"Not much~" Nue guided her heterochromatic companion around a corner, and pointed to a house a bit further down the street. "That's where I live," Nue said. "That's where you're living now took, alright? There should be a guest room down the hall from my room, so you'll have your own room too."

"I get my own room?"

"You bet, box-girl. Oh, there _is_ one important rule."

"I promise I won't break it, ever."

"Good. Just make sure that no matter what you do, you _never_ bug my uncle when he's working. If you hear the sound of drums coming from his room, then just assume he's working, alright?"

"Sure thing, Nue."

_Creak__…_ "And we're home! Lemme show you around." As soon as the two stepped inside, they were met with a staircase and the option of going up, left, or right. Pointing into the room on the right, she said "That's the living room. There's a computer in there if you have to do some research for a school assignment or something, but I don't really trust it for games." Guiding Kogasa down to the rooms on the left, she said "Here's the dining room, and the kitchen over there. You can slide on the tiles if you're wearing socks, and it's pretty fun."

"This is quite a place," Kogasa said, just a tad overwhelmed by all the rooms flying at her at once, accompanied by information and on most occasions, a fun bit of trivia Nue had to share. "What's upstairs?"

"Right." Guiding Kogasa up the stairs, Nue warned "Be careful going up and down these in the dark; I fell once and cracked my head wide open. I've got a nasty scar on the back of my head to prove it." Pointing to the room the two were faced with upon reaching the second floor, Nue said "That's the bathroom, and immediately to our right is the old man's room." Nue could hear the sounds of drums. He was in right now, and working. That was good; Nue wanted to introduce Kogasa to him as soon as possible, so that there wasn't much confusion later on. Instead of right to that room, though, Nue turned left and pointed down the small hallway. "The guest room is at the end of the hall, and mine is right next to it. Questions?"

"I've got one," a man's voice chimed in from right behind Nue, actually startling the delinquent girl and causing Kogasa to jump a good foot into the air. "Who's your friend, Nue?"

* * *

**Enter the uncle!**

**I actually based Nue's house almost exactly off the house of a friend of mine. If you're reading this, I know you know who you are; I just moved your door a little bit ;)**

**Also, I'm probably moving up to New Jersey in about three weeks, and that's a very good thing for a number of reasons. A: It's my home, and I'll be very far away from Florida which is the biggest thing holding me back. B: I've got quite a few friends up that-a-way. C: I just don't like southern states, Texas notwithstanding. I like Texans; they're cool folks :3**

**Also, even though she's human in this fic, I'm surprised nobody made a comment on Kogasa's blatant lack of eggplant umbrellas. Of course, now that I've said something, everybody's probably gonna ask "Why doesn't Kogasa have her umbrella?"**

**That part's coming, okay? Be patient, and see if you can't figure out that foreshadowing I mentioned earlier.**


	3. Chapter 3: Urameshiya, It's Raining!

**So now both school stories are up to three chapters?**

**I'd like to say this in advance; I'm going to put a pretty heavy focus on my Tohohana stories from here on in, so expect a lot of my new fics in the near future, or the moderately distant one as well. Ideally, I'd like to get every character into a pairing with another character, using each character only once each.**

**As you read this, there is a good chance that I'm preparing something of a database for the (important) residents of Tohohana, and there's a very high likelihood that when it's finished, I may upload it to Slingfile for easy retrieval by other people.**

**When that time comes, I'll let you know what's up.**

* * *

"Oh, Uncle Hikaru! This is Kogasa Tatara; she's going to be staying with us for a while."

"Why's that?"

"Her house burned down," Nue said. "Somebody set it on fire, and the poor girl's just lucky to be alive. There weren't any bodies in the fire, so the authorities are looking for her parents, but I volunteered to let her stay with us until then, okay?"

"…okay." With that and nothing more, Nue's uncle went back into his room and shut the door behind him. Seconds later, the sounds of drums once again resounded from the interior of that room. That meant he was working once again.

"Are you hungry?"

"Hm?"

"I asked if you're hungry," Nue repeated. "Before today, you were a homeless kid for a period of time I'm not certain of, but I've never heard of a hobo with a full belly. You have to be hungry."

"Now that you mention it…"

"Come on, let's go grab something to eat. I'm buying."

"By _buying_, you really mean _stealing_ don't you?"

"Absolutely not. The only food I ever steal is from convenience stores or grocery stores. I never steal from restaurants; I tried it once before." That brought about a hasty end to Nue's employment as a waitress a few months ago. Now that she thought about it that way, though, _all_ of Nue's jobs ended when she was caught stealing from her work. It wasn't like she cared; Uncle Hikaru brought in plenty of dough for the two of them, and adding a third head wouldn't make too much a difference. "I know a great restaurant not too far from your old box, but I'm trying not to go there for a few more months."

"Please explain," Kogasa requested as the duo walked out the door.

"I got fired for stealing from the place…and that's also how all my other jobs ended. It's pretty hard to steal from a band, so I'm hoping the bassist in YHZ-Saga drops dead soon. I can play all his parts, and let's face facts; a girl bassist is hands-down sexy."

"Is that so?"

"M-hm. What, you didn't know guys weren't my type?"

"I never thought about it…hey, wait a minute!"

"Yeah?"

"This morning, in the classroom, when you said I had to drop my skirt and panties…you were just trying to trick me into doing it, weren't you?"

"Guilty as charged~"

"You perv!"

"This perv gave you a home, so she can't be all bad, no matter what the school says…and the cops. And pretty much anybody else with any records about me whatsoever, which is just about every establishment in Tohohana."

"You _really_ try to make a name for yourself, don't you?"

* * *

**A fun ten minutes of walk-and-talking later; convenience store****…**

"…and so I told her, _then put the box at the school doors!_"

"Ha-ha-ha!"

"She's a grade above us, so you probably won't see her."

"Is there anybody else school-famous?"

"Let's see, now…who did I already cover?"

"Yourself, Hakurei, Kirisame, Konpaku, Minamitsu, and…oh, that transfer girl from the Arctic Circle who nobody knows her real name. The dumb one."

"Alright. There's also…oh, the _real_ principal."

"I thought our real principal was the guy at the desk. The one who put us in detention?"

"Nope. The _real_ principal is far too busy…or so she'll have us believe. We don't know her face, but it's said that any student called to her office is never seen again. She's sort of a school ghost in a way, except that she's real and very much alive. Principal Yakumo; the head of all things in the school."

"Wait, isn't Yakumo also the vice-principal's last name? And that one student; the freshman who hangs out with the transfer girl from the Arctic Circle?"

"Yep. The Yakumo family is small, but they have the most influence in town. More than the Houraisan yakuza; more than the Hakurei clan; more than the Scarlet and Hinanawi families who own pretty much everything, and even more than the mayor himself." It was actually kind of scary how much influence they had in town, especially when one came to the realization that the entire family's influential power was thanks to a single person. The head of the household who nobody from outside that family _ever_ saw. Even if she was fearless, it scared Nue whenever she thought about it. If they ever wanted to teach her the error of her ways, she'd probably disappear forever.

"Why do they have so much influence in town, exactly?"

"Well," Nue started, grabbing a number of snacks from the shelf next to her. "Rumor has it that a Yakumo single-handedly built this town some 1,300 years ago over the course of one day, and had mystical powers to keep it from getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of the rest of Japan. There's also rumors that the same Yakumo who built this town is the principal, and possibly the mayor as well, or at least until Ran Yakumo won the mayoral election last year. Of course, if that were true…"

"She'd be ancient. No human being can live 1,300 years, no matter what! Hey, y-you don't believe those rumors, do you?"

"Not at all. I'll use them for a good ghost story now and then, but I think it's all coincidence, and that there's no magical hag watching over our fine little town. Oh, grab me a few sodas since you're over there, okay?"

"Sure thing." It was pretty unusual for people to show Kogasa kindness like this, and to say the least, it had been throwing her off all day long, but she didn't pay it much mind. If she said something, there was a chance that Nue would change her mind, and then it would be back in the box. "So, is there some kind of universal name for this Yakumo entity? I mean, if she's the mayor, _and_ the principal, _and_ the person who built this town alone, she has to have some kind of title or something, right?"

"Yukari Yakumo."

"I see…whoa!" Kogasa had turned to look out the window, and before this talk of Yukari Yakumo, it was perfectly bright out, not a cloud in sight. Now, as though it was _because_ this person was the topic of conversation, thick black clouds stretched in every direction as far as the eye could see. "That looks ominous…"

"_Very_ ominous. Come on, whatever snacks and drinks you want, grab them quick so we can buy them and get out of here."

"Okay, okay." She already had plenty of things she'd enjoy between the items in her own arms and those in Nue's, but it was always a good idea to grab a little bit more if you knew it was okay. Grabbing a handful of more sodas and a scoop of snacks on her rushed way to the register, Kogasa did her best to smile a smile of reassurance toward Nue. She failed, of course; black clouds in general meant she had to find a new box in the past, and these ones in particular had an air of tension about them that could be felt all the way in the relative safety of the convenience store.

"Quite a spree," the cashier commented. "Wallet's looking good today, Houjuu?"

"Wonderful," Nue answered. "Say, you're pretty good with weather and stuff, right?"

"Yeah."

"How long do you think we have to get home before whatever's in those clouds hits us?"

"Oh, gee, I dunno. They sort of came out of nowhere, and look especially ominous, so I'd say…about sixty seconds."

"Alright." _SHIT!_ There was no way the duo could get home in a minute, even if they had a car handy. It was a fifteen minute walk to or from this store, so their three best options were to either…

A: Call Uncle Hikaru and have him pick the duo up. Not possible: Nue didn't have her phone on her and Uncle Hikaru didn't answer any number that wasn't in his contacts.

B: Ride out the…whatever was coming. Good, but not the ideal way to spend an afternoon with one's new friend. At least, not in a convenience store with somebody who kind of irritated Nue for no good reason.

C: Buy an umbrella…

"Hey," Kogasa said, holding up a eggplant-color umbrella. "How much is this?"

"That one's 2,000 yen," the cashier answered.

"Wh-What? Two-_thousand_? Just for an umbrella?" That seemed ridiculous.

"Yep. That one's pretty funny-looking, though, and given the situation…maybe I can sell it for 1,700 yen."

"1,700? Got it," Nue said, fishing into "her" wallet for the amount she owed plus 1,700 more…to find that she was short 200 yen. "Dammit. I can't afford that," the delinquent admitted. _And I can__'__t try stealing it; Kogasa already held it up and everything, and umbrellas are one of the few things I can__'__t get away with._

"No yen, no umbrella."

"Kogasa, you don't have 200 yen, do you?"

"Absolutely not," The heterochromatic girl herself said. "It'll be fine; we'll just run home as fast as we can. Maybe, if we're lucky, his guess is off and we can just barely beat the rain."

"Good plan!" Grabbing the bags of snacks and drinks, Nue bolted out the door, and-

_KRISHHHHHHHHHH!_ And ran back inside when the rain seemingly started all at once. To say it were raining buckets would be an understatement. An understatement about equal to calling decapitation a simple cut, or calling a 300-acre forest fire a campfire. In virtually no time at all, a film of rainwater covered the streets of Tohohana, failing to reach the sidewalks only because of the drains along the curbs, but just barely so.

"…well, looks like we're stuck," Nue said. "Even if we run, it's actually hard to imagine how wet we'd get by the time we're home."

"…"

"I've got an offer," the cashier said. "I'll give it to you for free, but…"

"Spit it out already!"

"Eep. To get it, you two have to kiss. Square on the lips."

"You're a freaking weirdo, you know that?"

"Says the girl who'd probably want to do exactly that~"

"Guilty as charged." So now Kogasa and Nue were met with two options. The first was to wait until this rain at least let up some. That didn't seem very likely. The second was to kiss each other square on the lips to get an umbrella for absolutely zero cost. Nue, who had her priorities (and orientation) perfectly set, already knew exactly which she'd take. Kogasa, on the other hand, didn't look so sure.

"U-Um…oh…"

"No pressure," Nue said. "Just remember; it's for the umbrella and an easy…well, relatively easy, ticket home. Nothing more, nothing less."

"…" _SMOOCH!_

"Congratulations," the cashier said. "You two lovebirds get to walk away with one eggplant umbrella. Have a nice day~"

"I know you'll have a nice night," Nue teased as she and Kogasa walked out the door, ready to go home. "You ready?"

"Yep." Kogasa opened up the umbrella, and- "Eek! It's looking right at me!"

"It's just a design."

"Oh…right. Sorry, just a little nervous." The eggplant-color umbrella had a green top, with a design consisting of a jack-o-lantern-style mouth in a deep red, and a single big eye staring right in front of it, also red. It was…fairly creepy, until Kogasa thought of one thing. An umbrella with an unorthodox design like this must have been an outcast umbrella. When she realized it, she was happy she chose this one. If there was one thing Kogasa wouldn't stand for, especially on a rainy day, it was that somebody would leave the umbrella there forever. Now it was hers. "Let's go home," Kogasa happily said.

* * *

**It's interesting that I had development on the town itself; something my KaguMoko fic doesn't have. It's also the only one of the two to mention Yukari, Reimu, et cetera, and a character who I tried to imply was Cirno. It seems that while the KaguMoko fic highly centers around those two characters and those close to them, this fic serves an important purpose; solidifying my creation of Tohohana as an actual thing.**

**That's very important, see. This way, I have an idea of what I'm doing in future fics involving this charming little town~**

**Now then, on to a topic more in-your-face since it's more recent.**

**Kogasa has an umbrella now! Huzzah! The youkai moe's two pieces have reunited, and she is now a whole once more. She'll be using her moe powers in the next chapter, I think. On probably the first character you're thinking of, depending on who you thought of first.**


	4. Chapter 4: Supernatural Happenings

**This chapter sort of detracts from the very thing I****'****m aiming at with the whole Tohohana ****"****series****"**** for about half of the chapter, but the rumors from the last chapter did that as well ^_^;**

**This one really goes against my objectives, but I had to make at least one exception, and of course, an exceptional character is usually the one to be an exception. If I****'****m being vague, or making you wonder about things, good. I****'****d rather you don****'****t know certain things before their appointed times, not at all unlike somebody in this chapter.**

* * *

"I'm home," Nue said, stepping into the front door, carrying all the bags from the convenience store. The rain hadn't let up a bit, and it showed no signs of doing so for some time. Nue understood that; the weather could get a little crazy around here now and then. What she _didn__'__t_ get was why Kogasa insisted on staying outside to play in the rain for a short while. Kogasa was a tad smaller than Nue, but just enough so to that the delinquent probably had no clothes that could fit on her new friend. Once Nue turned toward the dining room to get to the kitchen and put her things away, she nearly dropped her things at the sight of Uncle Hikaru, standing right there soundlessly and looking right at her. "You scared me! You've gotta learn to make some noise when you're lingering, Uncle Hikaru!"

"Nue, we have to talk."

"Okay. What's up?"

"That friend of yours, Kogasa. I can't in good conscience allow her to remain here!"

"…wait, hold on! Just a half-hour ago, you said you were fine with it!"

"I'm sorry, Nue, but that girl…I don't know how to explain it, but she looks like the kind of person that brings trouble." _KR-KRASHHHHHH!_ A massive bolt of lightning split the sky, and an equally massive crash of thunder resounded loud enough to rock the very foundations of the house the two stood in. "Where is she, anyway?"

_SLAM!_ "**NUE!**" In bolted Kogasa herself, dropping her umbrella and running straight to Nue with tears running down her face, and wrapping her arms tightly around the same delinquent as soon as possible, shaking out of control. "It's scary!"

"There, there. You're inside now; completely safe from whatever's out there. So, what was so scary that you gave up playing in the rain?"

"The thunder! I think some of this rainwater dripping off me might not be water, actually…do you have a clean change of clothes?"

"Yeah. Uncle Hikaru, can she stay for…" Uncle Hikaru's hand was firmly over his nose and mouth, but that didn't stop some blood from slipping between his fingers.

"She can stay," he said, albeit slightly muffled. "We'll keep her until we find her parents."

"Perv," Nue teased. "I'll make sure Kogasa's door is locked and barricaded at night; we don't want your parole violated three days from your first world tour, do we?" That would suck. Nobody else could play Hikaru's parts in YHZ-Saga's songs and still have the stamina to do vocals, so in a sense, the band's performance completely relied on him being around and able to perform. "I'm gonna get this girl a clean set of clothes. And I'm covering the secret peephole on the guest room's door."

"You knew about the peephole?"

"I _installed_ it!"

* * *

**Approx. 2 minutes later; guest room****…**

"How are they?"

"They're a bit loose," Kogasa said. The clothes she'd been given were a set of Nue's pajamas. Black ones with flying saucers in red, green, and blue. The arms were too long and Kogasa's hands got swallowed whole by the sleeves, and the same effect was attained by the length of the pants covering her feet entirely, but Nue had rolled up the bottoms of the pants to resolve the latter. "I-I mean, they're really comfy and I wouldn't mind wearing them all day, but…"

"Then wear them all day. If this rain keeps up, school's gonna be cancelled tomorrow, so I might get to go another day before probably being expelled, but if it keeps up through all of today _and_ tomorrow, we could have a flood situation on our hands." If it continued raining like this tomorrow, Nue would have to make a personal note to go shopping - preferably in Uncle Hikaru's car - and buy supplies to ensure that they'd be able to handle a flood situation. Disaster preparedness wasn't exactly a strong suit of the Houjuu family.

"Alright. Thanks, Nue. You're going to have our school uniforms ready for tomorrow, right?"

"Absolutely, presuming school doesn't get cancelled by this rain. For now, it's already seven at night, and I don't know about you, but I've had one hell of a day. This girl's gotta get some shut-eye," Nue finished, shutting her bedroom door behind her. Moments later, it swung back open, and Nue said "Oh, before I forget, I have an important warning."

"Oh?"

"There's no way to tell if that thunder made you actually piss yourself, but be careful not to let it happen again in the future. Otherwise, Uncle Hikaru and I have to hand down…well…"

"Punishment?"

"To me, _punishment_ is a fun-time-only term. In standard situations, I prefer the word _castigation_."

"What kind of…can I just say punishment?"

"If you insist. I'll get into detail about it tomorrow. For now, between becoming friends with a new girl who I initially couldn't stand, making her my illegitimate foster sister, and walking home in the absolute worst downpour I've ever seen, I'm beat. Good night."

"Good night, Nue. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Make sure you lock that door when you go to bed. Uncle Hikaru's almost off probation, but he can't resist girls when they're sleeping." _SHUT!_ Until tomorrow morning, Nue would drift off to sleep. _Click._ Before she did that, though…today had been a stressful day. Reaching under her bed, Nue said to herself "I know I left them under here somewhere…if Uncle Hikaru took them again, I swear I'll rat him out as the perv he is."

* * *

**7 hours later; Nue Houjuu****'****s bedroom****…**

"Zzzzz…" Nue was sound asleep now. She'd found what she was looking for under her bed, took a few minutes to herself, then put on her pajamas and put herself down for bed. However, like the weather, Nue's sleep was far from peaceful. "Zzz…mm…no…"

* * *

**Nue****'****s dream world****…**

"Where is this?" Nue couldn't see anything intelligible anywhere, in any direction. No matter which way she looked, all she could see was a dark purple void adorned with countless eyes, all seeming to stare right at her. There was also something holding her in place, but whenever she looked down to see what it was, nothing could be found. Could it have been fear that was restricting Nue's movements? "Absolutely not," Nue said angrily to herself. "I'm scared of nothing!"

"Nothing, is it?" Within this purple void, a hole opened up ahead of Nue. For the short time that it was open, Nue could see what she was rather certain to be Tohohana, but just as fast as it was opened, it closed again. Now she was alone in this place, with only the owner of this second voice to keep her company. Whoever this other person was, she was a woman who had aged well. Long, flowing golden hair and sharp purple eyes that seemed to glint like a malicious and precious gemstone. She wore a dress the same color as the void around her, and long white gloves. Who was she?

"I hear you've been talking. About me~"

"As if! Who are you anyway, woman?"

"Names, is it, Nue?"

"Wait…I never…" Nue never introduced herself. Whoever this person was, she already knew who Nue was. She didn't like the looks of this.

"My name is Yukari Yakumo. Now, normally, when people talk about me, I simply erase their memories that night and let them go back to their happy little lives, but _you_, little Nue, are diverting people from their fates."

"Which people? It's Kochiya, isn't it? Damn, I knew I shouldn't have gone with the nuts!"

"It's not a matter of food allergies, stupid. It's a matter of _fate_, and how by taking in young Kogasa Tatara, you're not only taking a big step off the tides of your own fate, but you're sending Kogasa right off track from her own."

"Yeah, sure thing, Yukari." In a standard situation, Nue would be terrified. If this person claiming to be Yukari Yakumo was _really_ Yukari Yakumo, then all the rumors about her were true and Nue was looking at probably the most powerful being to grace the lands of Japan. However, this was a dream. She knew that much; she'd taken a sleeping pill after finishing up with the objects under her bed, and was out in seconds. Thus, Nue wasn't intimidated at all by this Yukari, be she real or not.

"You'd be wise to take me a little more seriously. You have to put Kogasa back on the streets," Yukari said. "If you don't, she'll never fulfill her fate."

"And who picked it out? You?"

"No…well, yes _and_ no. I didn't personally create the span of possible fates for each person, but in the world - or at least in my own town of Tohohana - I like to help each individual along the courses of time and space to meet whichever fate is most favorable for them. Kogasa's fate - the one I'm trying to push her toward - is that she will one day become one of the greatest poets in this generation of the Japanese people. Her tragic past and troubled present were meant to become the fuel for her works in the future, and it was actually in the same course of fate that you and her were to meet, and you even did exactly as you should have…until you offered to take her back to your place."

"So if I kick her out, she'll be a famous poet?"

"I calculate a 98.367214% chance that it will be so."

"No way!" Famous or not; homeless or not; Nue didn't care. Kogasa had been so good to her since the two met, even if Nue was still a bit miffed about the first trip to the principal's office when Kogasa ratted her out. She didn't care if she was screwing up Kogasa's fate, or even her own, but even Nue had a conscience, and that conscience made it so that she'd fight with all her heart to keep Kogasa off the streets. If she really had a tragic past like Yukari said, then Nue's resolve would only be stronger to do just that.

"Pity. You would have been the bassist in your uncle's band, too…"

"Are you trying to bribe me?"

"Perhaps~" Yukari, or at least, it _seemed_ to be Yukari, dissolved the purple void around them, and the scene changed. Now the two were at a stage in a massive hall, with hundreds and thousands of screaming fans. At the stage was a three-piece metal ensemble. Hikaru Houjuu, Yuri Yatsuni, and…an older-looking Nue Houjuu. She looked happy. Happier than she'd ever been. "Your ideal fate is to become the next bassist in YHZ-Saga. Your past of crime would have influenced your personal style of playing and writing music, and the band would have put you in charge of writing a whole album. That album would have made your band a global hit, and you would have world fame and all the money and women you could ever want."

Then the scene changed again, to a lush and lavish, though very humble, mansion. In front of it, sitting at a fountain, was a girl. She had light blue hair, and wore sunglasses to hide her two eyes. One was blue. The other was red. "That would be Kogasa," Yukari continued. "Not unlike yourself, she'd become world-famous with her works, but even as a world-famous poet, Kogasa would have still lacked something. Love. If you truly wish to be friends with Kogasa, I request that you wait at least twenty years."

"Are you out of your mind? I'll be her friend now, dammit! For all I know, this is just a dream and you're a complete fake!"

"I see…how's this for proof, then? Tomorrow, at exactly one o' clock in the afternoon, just as evacuations are about to begin for a flood, the rain will, all at once, cease. Later, at five in the afternoon, something is going to drift by your house in the accumulated rainwater. An apple, I believe. A green one. Kogasa will attempt to eat it. Stop her if you wish; the apple has worms inside."

"…if all that happens, I'll believe you're the real Yukari Yakumo, and all the rumors about you are completely true," Nue agreed. "But I'm not putting Kogasa back on the streets. I'd rather ruin her future by letting her have a friend like me than break her heart until then by casting her out."

"Spoken like a true Houjuu. Now then, it's seven in the morning. I'll speak to you again tonight, but for now, you must wake up."

* * *

**I****'****ll be damned if IOSYS****'****s remix ****"****Border of Death****"**** isn****'****t the best song in the world for the dream sequence.**

**I remind myself a bit of the movie The Adjustment Bureau with Yukari being all ****"****Kick her out; it****'****s fate****"**** in this chapter, but of course, I haven****'****t actually watched that movie. I know that Yukari was at least gonna let the two meet again, albeit at least twenty years later, whereas in the movie I referred to, they were saying the protagonist was never allowed to meet the girl again. Personally, I****'****d do what Nue****'****s doing, until such a time as Yukari is proven to be real. At that point, I****'****d say these exact words to Kogasa:  
****"****I****'****m sorry, but I have to kick you out. It****'****s the last thing I want to do, believe me, but I had something of a vision last night. If I do this, you****'****ll be one of the greatest poets of our generation, and I****'****ll be the bassist for YHZ-Saga. We****'****ll both be rich and happy, and after we****'****re both famous, we can meet each other again and be faithfully side-by-side until we both get old and die.****"**

**At least, until Kogasa****'****s moe powers kicked in. Then I****'****d probably do the same thing as Uncle Hikaru at the beginning of the chapter XD**


	5. Chapter 5: The Girl Who Ran From Fate

**If I had to calculate it by events, I'd say this fanfic is already about halfway done, or maybe two-thirds. There's a turn near the end of this chapter that I actually didn't see coming until I wrote it out, but I didn't expect Nue's theft-spree from a year ago to be important until later on, as we approached the climax. Initially, I had a much different plan, but that plan was sort of thrown out the window early in this chapter.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_ _BEE-Click!_ "I hate my alarm clock," Nue groaned as she literally rolled out of bed and onto the floor. This was how she woke herself up in the mornings, as opposed to the normal "shower and breakfast" method. Nothing woke a person up like a nice faceplant into the bedroom floor, even if it was soft black carpet. Shooting back up to her feet, Nue said "That's more like it." The delinquent girl reached for her doorknob, turned it, pulled the door open, and-

"Surprise!"

"**GWAH!**" And fell flat on her ass.

"Good morning, Nue~" Standing in front of the bedroom door was Kogasa, still in the clothes she borrowed, and holding a tray of food. It was obviously breakfast, but it just as obvious that it was enough to feed two people. "I made breakfast!"

"Wow, you made all this?"

"Uh-huh. I got up extra early this morning, so I decided to start working on food for you and for me. Mine sort of came first, but that's okay because yours is still hot and fresh, and it's my way of thanking you for letting me stay here, so it wouldn't do if it got all cooled down and bad-tasting, right?"

"You really didn't have to go that far out of your way for me…come on in." Nue let her new friend in the room, and made her way over to the windows of the room. The dream from last night was still fresh in her head - more so than any she'd ever had - and she had six hours to go until Yukari's first prediction came true. "Well, looks like we're not going to school today," she joked as the windows opened to reveal the sight of the rain, which hadn't let up a bit since yesterday. Were she able to see through the windows, Nue would be able to notice that the water had built up higher still. Were she to go outside, the water would be up to her knees if she stood on the sidewalk. It was only going to get deeper as the day continued, and according to Yukari's predictions, there wouldn't necessarily be any flood. That at least meant that Nue wouldn't have to go shopping for supplies. Not like she could get far in a half-submerged car, anyway.

"It's still pouring down…"

"And it's only going to get deeper," Nue said. "Plus, I have a question."

"Okay. What's up?"

"What's your take on poetry?"

"Poetry? Why?"

"Dunno. Just figured, since you're more or less my foster sister, I should learn a few things about you that I wouldn't know without asking."

"Well, with poetry, the thing is…" _Mumble__…_

"Huh?"

"I…_mumble__…_"

"Hey," Nue assured, putting a hand on Kogasa's shoulder. "Whatever it is, I'm ready for it. Just in the course of yesterday, you were the new student who dropped her skirt and panties, who I kicked in the face. You became my friend not long after I _kicked_ you." From there, the surprises were plentiful. Kogasa had formerly lived in a cardboard box next to the old frozen warehouse, and she was scared of dogs and thunder. She liked odd-looking umbrellas, and loved to play in the rain; the heavier the rain, the more she wanted to play in it. Nue was ready for whatever Kogasa was about to say, most likely.

"Well, I'm not really a big fan of poetry…I've never read any."

"Really? Why not?"

"Actually, I've never really read anything…I, well, sorta…don't know how to read or write."

"…what?" _This_ _girl_ was supposed to be a famous poet? Now Nue was starting to doubt her dream from last night; how could Kogasa become a poet if she didn't know how to read the works of others or write her own?

"W-Well, I mean, I've had other people read it to me before, and when they read it to me like that, it's not bad, but…yeah. If I could write, I'd probably like it a little more, but as I am, I don't like it all that much."

"Okay. I have to tell you something important, Kogasa." Both of Nue's hands set themselves on her companion's shoulders, and Nue's eyes looked straight into the contrasting shades of Kogasa's. Then she saw something else, behind Kogasa, as though it were painted on the black walls of Nue's room. A bright purple eye, glaring right at Nue. Either it was Yukari, or Nue was gradually losing her mind. "I have to…"

"Yeah?"

"…teach you how to read and write!"

"Really? Thank you, Nue!" Kogasa threw her arms around Nue, and happily said "That's the nicest thing anybody's done for me…w-well, you know, except for taking me home, but you did _that_, too! You're such a nice person!'

"I'm glad you think so," Nue said, returning the embrace. The eye on the wall looked _really_ pissed off at Nue. In the event that it wasn't Nue going nuts, and that it was really the mystical powers of a mythological deity (more or less) who may have actually been real, Nue had to make her feelings known to Yukari. So, sending a sly grin in the direction of the eye, Nue mouthed the words "Fuck you, Yukari; I'm keeping her."

_You__'__ll regret that,_ a voice suddenly resounded in Nue's head.

"Whoa!"

"You sound surprised," Kogasa said. "Something wrong?"

"Nah, I'm just…I'm still a little worn out is all." When the two were talking about Yukari yesterday, Kogasa seemed pretty intimidated by the not-so-mythological entity, so the last thing Nue would tell her was that Yukari Yakumo was in fact real, and trying to force Nue to put Kogasa back on the streets so that she and Nue would one day be a famous poet and the next bassist in YHZ-Saga, respectively. Uncle Hikaru would probably put Nue through mental tests if she said "Hey, Uncle Hikaru, I just learned that Yukari Yakumo - our town's mythological founder - is actually real and trying to make Kogasa homeless again so that she can become a famous poet without actually knowing how to read or write" so going to him was out of the question. But there was _one_ person who would believe Nue, without a doubt. _One_ person. And Nue knew how to see that person. "Hey, Kogasa?"

"What is it?"

"You wanna go play in the rain?"

"Absolutely!"

"Alright, let's get dressed," she said, stepping out of the room and swinging open a hallway closet. "Remember when I was talking about that theft spree from last year?"

"Uh-huh. You stole, let's see…five bags of popcorn, a box of candy, two full sets of rainwear, and a some pieces of what you called _special_ clothing."

"Yep. Here," she said, tossing Kogasa one of the sets of rainwear. "It's been pouring like this since yesterday, so I imagine the water's pretty deep. Just put that on over whatever." To make her point, Nue began equipping herself with the bright yellow waterproof items over her pajamas. "I've also got a second umbrella around, so we don't have to huddle up under the same one together like yesterday."

"Okay…how do I do all this?"

"I'll help you out, okay?" The last of a set of buttons on a bright yellow raincoat was fastened on Nue's body, and she was now garbed in bright yellow from head to toe. "You have to get these pants on first. Here, you slip your legs in and I'll get these straps fastened over your shoulders while you do that." As the two began following Nue's plan for waterproofing Kogasa, part of Nue had to wonder if going to this person about Yukari was really a good idea. Either it would work, or the whole plan would explode in her face, and if things went especially wrong, Nue might face jail time. Surprisingly, it would have been the first time. "Alright, now you get the boots on, and I'll fasten the buttons on your raincoat."

"This is going to be really fun," Kogasa said. "It's raining so bad outside, and I'm wearing stuff designed to keep me dry, so I can play as long as I want!"

"Yep, you sure can. Hey, do you like to play in the rain when there's a current?"

"Like, when the water gets deep and there's a current like in a river?"

"Uh-huh."

"It's the best!"

"You want to know where there's a really neat current when the rain gets this bad?"

"Where?"

"City hall."

"Ooh…I wanna go there!" Kogasa looked really excited. "Hey, this feels a bit loose. Is that okay?"

"Yep. You're pretty small for the eleventh grade, but I can't do much about that." Grabbing a see-through umbrella from the closet with the rainwear in it - and Kogasa's freaky purple one - Nue started down the stairs. "Come on, you. We've gotta get to city hall before you can enjoy the currents there." The way the city hall was positioned - as well as the odd placement of drains and curbs there - made the currents near it odd when the roads flooded. In certain circumstances, it could get a bit dangerous, but Kogasa had been homeless for a time Nue was starting to think had to be at least seven years. She'd be fine, probably.

As the two started down the stairs, though, a man's voice rung out. "Where are you two going in this weather?"

"Gyah! Dammit, Uncle Hikaru! Quit being so deathly silent!"

"Come on, Nue; where are you two going in this weather?"

"City hall," the delinquent said honestly enough. "Kogasa likes to play in the rain, and loves currents, and I wanted to show her the way they get all strange around city hall. It's not like we're playing hooky or anything - school got rained out, right?"

"It did get rained out…just be careful, alright? We don't know if Kogasa can swim or not."

"She should be alright," Nue assured her uncle as she walked out the front door into the rain that was impossible to imagine without actually seeing it. It still unnerved her that it was raining this hard…

"Let's go," Kogasa happily said, opening up her big purple umbrella. "I can't wait to see the currents at city hall!" She loved playing in the rain, rainstorms, and currents, and now she was about to get to enjoy all three of those things! She couldn't wait!

"I'm sure you can't," Nue said, opening her own umbrella and taking her first steps into the day-old rainstorm. "Oh, hey. You don't mind if we make a few quick stops along the way, do you?"

"No. Why?"

"It's just that whenever I'm outside and it's raining this hard, I dunno why, but I always have to pee all of a sudden…I gotta go inside for a second. I'll be right back!"

* * *

**Don't worry about it, Nue. Or do. See if I care~**

**I really do, though. If it wasn't implied heavily enough between the third chapter talking about the mayoral election from last year and the Yukari sequence from the last chapter, I'm just going to come out and say it so that those who got what I was implying and those who didn't are on the same page.**

**Nue plans to see the mayor - Ran - about this possible Yukari problem. And like I said in the story, this plan has the risk of blowing up in Nue's face and possibly putting her behind bars for the first time in her life. She would make it in prison, though, so it's okay if she gets locked up…**

**I'm kidding! It wouldn't be okay at all; Kogasa would be in grave danger at the time of the climax if Nue got put behind bars. I'm not going to say much beyond that, except…yeah, that's all for now ^_~**


	6. Chapter 6: A Bad Idea

**Things are getting pretty intense in this chapter :D**

**A fair bit of exposition here, an antagonist there, and another surprise in the story I didn't see coming until I wrote it. This is actually a very nice chapter! Also, if I ever mentioned a certain pair of PC-98 characters, I'm not actually sure when we'll see them. I just know we will ^_^;**

**That aside, I'm pretty tired as I'm keying in this author note; I got this chapter ready to upload at half-past-midnight, and I mostly did it because I wanted a certain scene to go online already and I've had plenty of spare time while my newest musical work finished up the rendering process.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

"Are you okay out here by yourself?"

"I'll be fine," Kogasa happily said, splashing about as much as she could while thigh-deep in accumulated rainwater. "This current's really neat!" Because of the odd placement of both city hall and the drains around it, when the water got deep enough around the building, it formed a circular current. At the least, if Kogasa slipped and lost herself to the current, she wouldn't go too far; just in circles. "Hey, where are you going?"

"I've gotta get inside," Nue answered. "Too much rain for my taste. You can stay out here and play if you want to; I'll make sure to get you when it's time to go home."

"Okay~"

"You know where to find me." The doors of city hall then shut themselves behind Nue, effectively cutting the delinquent off from the downpour outside. Since the doors were unlocked, Nue could only assume that the person she was looking for had to be in today. The mayor of Tohohana: Ran Yakumo. If anybody would believe Nue's story, it would be Ran. Of course, it was risky. It wasn't impossible that there was some kind of ancient Yakumo conspiracy running this town, and that Ran was involved. If that were the case, Nue could find herself in a pretty big spot of trouble. She hoped that there wasn't such a thing in this town. For one, if she was put behind jail bars for knowing about it, then Kogasa would - in all her naivety - continue to play outside for an indefinite amount of time before finally going home or slipping and drowning. In the event of the former, she'd probably get pretty scared when she realized Nue was nowhere to be found. Nue wanted none of that to happen. So, making one final turn in the city hall's halls, Nue faced the door of the mayor's office, and gathering all her courage, knocked three times.

"Come in," a voice rang from behind the door.

Opening the door, Nue took in the sight of Tohohana's mayor. Ran kept her hair a little bit shorter than shoulder-length, and styled it fairly plainly. And fitting for a mayor, she always wore a suit. Nue didn't trust people in suits. Even so, this was her only possible lead on the Yukari thing. "Mayor Yakumo," Nue said, stepping into the office. "I need to talk to you."

"I'm a mayor, not a counselor. If you want to talk to somebody, and find that your friends and family don't suffice, there's a counseling center downtown."

"You're the only one who would get it."

"…are you the Houjuu child?"

"Yes, ma'am. Nue Houjuu, and I have to-" _CLA-CLICK!_ "Hey, watch it! Is that thing loaded?" Nue could have swore that her heart skipped a beat. In a second's time - or actually less than half that - Ran went from sitting at her desk like she probably always did to standing up on her two feet, with something pointed straight at Nue's face. A gun. "Look," she said, putting her hands up. "I'm not here to hurt anybody, okay?"

"I already know what you're here for. Yukari left my office just minutes ago, informing me that you'd come here to talk about her. We - the Yakumo clan - have been running this town since its founding, and thanks to that, we've had 1,300 years of peace. Everything is already under control, and we don't need delinquents like yourself sticking your nose into matters that you can't grasp in the least."

"She's trying to put a homeless girl back on the streets! A real cute one, at that!"

"The Tatara child? Yes, Yukari mentioned that as well. You'd better sit down, Nue. The evidence suggests that you know less than I thought you did." To prove that her intentions were, at the least, not completely harmful to Nue or Kogasa, Ran was even so kind as to put her gun back in the desk, and sit back down like nothing had happened.

"Yes, ma'am." Seating herself across the desk from the mayor herself, Nue asked "So how much do I not know?"

"Almost all of it, in fact. First off, the things you _do_ know. Tell me."

"Yukari Yakumo is very much real, and has been controlling the fates of Tohohana residents probably since the town's founding. She has powers that defy reality, and is capable of making just about anything happen. She told me last night that if I put Kogasa back on the streets, she's going to become a world-famous poet, and I'll be the next bassist in YHZ-Saga, and if I don't, I'll regret it and neither of those things she predicted will come true."

"They're not predictions, to start off. They're _truths_. Now then, listen to me, Nue, and listen well. I'm not going to repeat any of this."

"Understood."

"What Yukari wants more than anything is to put the people of this town - _her_ town - in their ideal fates. She watches everybody in town at all times, and has had her eye on both of you since birth. She's controlled your fate in the past, and will continue to push you in the right direction until you meet your ideal fate. In your case, this will be to become the bassist of this band your uncle heads. Kogasa's past was written by Yukari so that her present could be the uncertain one she had…until you took her in. Now, I was sworn to keep as much about her past a secret as I possibly can, but I feel you should know at least one thing."

"Oh?"

"While Kogasa is unable to read or write, even she can copy characters onto a piece of paper."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This," Ran said, putting a piece of paper on the desk. "It's Kogasa's application to join the public school system in Tohohana. The signatures of her parents are both forged, and there are several lies on this paper. The address she wrote on her application - by nothing more than a coincidence - happens to be _your_ address, and she also lied about her age."

"Age?"

"Currently, Kogasa attends Class 11-C. She _should_ be in Class 9-B given her age. Kogasa is two years younger than everybody else in your class, thus her small stature for a student in her grade. Now, Yukari and I have been talking about this whole issue of fate and putting Kogasa on the streets, and we're willing to compromise with you." It wasn't a perfect deal, but none were. However, it was the best offer Yukari and Ran were willing to give Nue at this point.

"I can't wait to hear this."

"Powerful though she may be, Yukari doesn't allow herself to directly interfere with the residents of Tohohana, lest they become fully aware of her existence. Therefore, we can't rip Kogasa away from you without appearing to be involved in some form of a conspiracy…well, I suppose that depending on your view of it, we _are_. Regardless, we've come to draw up an offer that may work for you."

"Out with it already!"

"We shall keep Kogasa off the streets, at the least. She'll be returned to her appropriate class, where she'll learn to read and write from somebody _other than you_, and in this way, she'll be fully able to read and write the poetry meant to make her famous."

"How would you keep her off the streets? Are _you_ going to adopt her?" If that were the case, Nue would much rather turn down the offer; famous poet or not.

"No. Kogasa would be relocated to Tohohana's local youth shelter; a place for homeless teens and young adults to call home for a time. She'll be off the streets, learn to read and write, and even attain world fame as a poet. And _you_ will become the bassist of that band you so love. Of course, the conditions are simple. You must forsake Kogasa from your life, at least until you've both met your ideal fates."

"…**NO DEAL!**"

"Begging pardon?"

"Do you seriously think I'm just going to let that happen? I don't care if she's famous or forgotten; Kogasa is pretty much the only real friend I've got left. If you think I'm going to hand her over to Yukari's decisions, you need to get out of this office and into a straightjacket."

"…I see. I really didn't want it to end this way, Nue." Picking up the phone at her desk, Ran said "Get me security. We have a confessing criminal up here who has to be jailed."

"!"

"I'm sure Yukari said it already. If you defy her, you'll only come to regret it. Once again, I really wished that we wouldn't have to end it like this. Enjoy your twenty-year sentence, Nue."

"This is ridiculous," Nue protested, just in time for two burly security men to grab her arms and start dragging her away. "You can't just make people disappear! How would you explain this to my uncle, huh? It's not like you'd be able to cover all this up, Mayor Yakumo! Damn you and your conspiracy! Damn them both straight to hell!"

* * *

**Meanwhile, outside city hall****…**

_SPLASH! SPLASH!_ "He-he-hee~" Kogasa did so love playing in the rain. Even if it seemed kind of immature for her age, Kogasa didn't care at all. She loved nothing more than the rain, and playing in the rain made her love it that much more. But then - she had no way to see it coming - she slipped. For a few seconds, she was completely underwater, save her beloved umbrella, and was going in circles from the current, but she eventually got her booted feet back on the street and was able to get her head out of the water.

"…**LET GO OF ME!**"

"Huh?" That sounded like Nue. Did something happen in city hall? Was Nue in trouble for something big this time? With curiosity getting the best of her, Kogasa waded through the current up to city hall, to see her being dragged away by two men in police uniforms. Were they _arresting_ Nue? "O-Oh, boy…this is bad! Really bad!" She had to let Nue's uncle know! Since the two met, Kogasa had been with Nue pretty much all the time, so she'd know better than almost anybody if Nue did anything illegal. Just then, as Kogasa looked at the police dragging Nue away, one of them looked right at her. Followed by Nue, whose eyes widened in shock at the sight she was seeing. It looked like she was trying to say something to Kogasa, but unlike the shout from recently, none of Nue's words got through the glass doors of city hall. What followed gave Kogasa something of an idea as to what Nue was trying to say. One of the officers released Nue, and started making his way to Kogasa. He looked ready to take her somewhere, and for some reason, the often-optimistic Kogasa was drawing up a bad conclusion for all of this. She knew what Nue was trying to tell her. "Run!" So she did. Kogasa ran as fast as her legs would take her (considering the weather and the depth of the water) in an attempt to figure out a safe place to hide from the police who wanted her for some reason. In Nue's terms, Kogasa had to escape the heat. When she put it that way, a revelation hit her. If Kogasa could _escape the heat_…

Kogasa knew exactly where to hide; a place where only idiots and transfer students from the Arctic Circle would think of going.

* * *

**I did the Arctic Circle gag again~**

**I've worked out something of a backstory for Cirno's Tohohana counterpart, and she actually isn't from the Arctic Circle at all. In reality, the Tohohana version of Cirno came from Italy, which is mostly because her name seems kind of Italian to me. Very few characters in Tohohana actually came from Tohohana, at least considering how many of them are modified versions of Touhou characters ^_~**

**I have a databank for the lot of them, which formerly included any OC I've added up to this point. Strangely, the only OC I was missing was the one from this fic: Hikaru Houjuu - Nue's uncle. That's life, probably~**

**I removed the OCs from the databank because they're mostly used to fill in roles I wasn't able/willing to fill in with Touhou characters, such as the fathers of Mokou and Kaguya, and Nue's uncle...wait, that's all of them thus far ^v^  
**


	7. Chapter 7: Nature's Little Delinquents

**As the pattern of my uploads may imply, I'm putting out a particular focus on this fic, mostly because it's a pairing I've never written before. For two characters I'm interested in, this is rare.**

**The climax is drawing closer and closer, and I do my favorite thing to do to the readers - pull a fast reversal out of my hat - in this chapter. I want a hat. A green one, like Nitori's. And also a blue one, and I pretty much want to gather up materials so that I can sort-of-cosplay genderswapped versions of the Touhou characters, which actually look pretty good in most cases. A genderswap cosplay of Rumia, for instance, would look especially neat since you could make it work in most situations if you did it right. Sanae as well, but not Sakuya. And of course, Wriggle would work well :3**

**But I digress. Back to the story at hand~**

* * *

"You guys don't seriously think you'll get away with this, right?" To say the least, Nue was still pretty outraged about all this. Unfortunately, however mad she got over all this, she couldn't do much about it behind jail bars. There was a pair of people already here, in a different cell, but Nue was placed as far away from them as possible. Those two must have been pretty wicked to put everybody else (which currently consisted of just Nue) as far as possible. If only the rest of the old gang were here; Nue would undoubtedly find a way out of here, even if she wasn't half the delinquent then that she was now. _Especially_ when she wasn't half the delinquent then that she was now. Yes, if only they were here…

Nue hadn't mentioned it to Kogasa, but now she was hoping she would have. She was a part of a delinquent quartet before starting high school. Nature's Little Delinquents, they called themselves, and each one in the team represented one of the four elements. Nue got water, only because she was the weakest link and the other three were already taken. One member got air because of her running speed and how she seemed to make the things she stole vanish into thin air. Nue learned the fine art of theft from her example. Another member got fire because of her affinity for the element, and because she formerly had an extremely short temper. She was still short-tempered these days, Nue heard, but had since abandoned crime in the hopes of becoming a detective like her father. The fourth member, and the leader, was given earth because of her absurd strength - even for her size, and she was strong enough to break rocks with her bare hands. Bending these bars would have been easy for her by now, probably, which was why she was then known as Yuugi the Strong. How Nue wished that at least one of them would show up; from there, they could work out a plan…

"Put me down," somebody shouted. "I'm telling ya, that opium doesn't belong to me! Gimme a piss-test if you want to, ze!" Nue recognized that voice, but the adding of "ze" made it certain. Another one of Nature's Little Delinquents had just been locked up. Marisa, most likely; Mokou only used "ze" when she was with the crew, and had stopped using it when she gave up crime.

"Quiet, kid."

"Oh, here's a bargain, ze! How's about I tell you which druggie wanted this stuff? Then you let me go!" Marisa's specialty. Making up bargains, even if she knew they wouldn't work. At the least, it was still worth a shot, no matter the situation. "That sounds nice, yeah?" _KA-CRIIIIIIIIING!_ The jail door for Nue's cell swung open, and rather roughly, Marisa got tossed in. Then, with a resounding metallic slam, it was shut once more. The most vicious members of a former crime quartet (Nue had only become the second-most vicious since the complete dissolution of the group) sharing a jail cell.

"Hey there, Marisa."

"I know that voice. I know that hair. How's it hanging, Houjuu? Looks like you became a bona fide criminal after all, da ze!"

"Yeah. I guess so. So, care to tell me something?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"You guys didn't really leave me behind because I was a year younger, did you?" Nue aside, the entire gang was in the same grade, with Nue being a year younger and a grade lower. Thus, three years ago, when the rest of them started high school, they dropped Nue like a bad habit, not even letting her back in the following year. If they had, the group would have probably still been in action.

"Ah…you remembered? No; we didn't ditch you just for your age. Now that you're behind bars, I feel like less of an asshole for saying this, but three years ago…you just weren't criminal potential. You had me stealing things, Mokou running that wild extortion thing back in junior high, and Yuugi roughing up anybody who didn't do what we said. Then there was you, who just kinda…stuck onto the group. You were the class hamster, really; we just took care of you because we thought you were cute." Marisa only said she'd felt like _less of an asshole_. She still felt kind of bad for stating it so honestly and upfront, but it was common knowledge that if anybody in town refused to beat around the bush, it was Marisa Kirisame. "So what's your crime?"

"They're probably writing it up as conspiracy or treason, or a combination of the two. In reality, _they__'__re_ the ones behind a conspiracy! How about you?"

"Selling opium."

"Wow…that's pretty hardcore for you, Marisa. So, do you have a jailbreak plan handy?"

"Not at all. You know, I saw them dragging you through city hall. It was pretty crazy, ze."

* * *

_The rain wasn__'__t Marisa__'__s favorite thing in the world, but she__'__d put up with it. It was for a deal, after all, and she didn__'__t want to let her superiors down. The last person that backed down on a deal on Mima__'__s behalf__…__well, they at least found a finger. Marisa knew that, since she was Mima__'__s favorite, that probably wouldn__'__t happen, but there was no way to tell for sure. The deal was to take place right here, in front of city hall, and while it seemed stupid, the client insisted that he get his opium right here. There was a girl in the water, playing around in the rain like a little kid. What was she doing here? Was she the one who wanted the opium?_

_ That would have been a surprise. While she waited for the client, she may as well have watched the girl. The bright yellow rainwear and the purple umbrella were a nice contrast to each other, and just as much so to the black sky. This would have been when she saw Nue getting dragged through city hall. She was being dragged by two officers, and just as they were at the perfect spot to see Marisa, one of them stopped, and looked dead at her. Was it possible? Had Marisa been set up? Dammit! No point trying to escape; while cars wouldn__'__t be any good in these conditions, the police had motorized rafts ready for these situations. Why that was still remained a mystery to everybody, but it seemed to work in their favor today. The girl in yellow started running as well. Best to have somebody on the outside who had no idea what they were doing, so__…_

_"__You there,__"__ Marisa shouted as loud as she could, pointing straight at the girl with the umbrella. __"__Find the delinquents! Nature__'__s Little Delinquents! Tell them Kirisame and Houjuu are behind bars!__"_

* * *

"Cool story. But, I have to ask something."

"Go for it, ze."

"You're _sure_ her umbrella was purple?"

"Yep. With this big freaky eye on it. For a second, I thought it was going to try and eat me whole."

"I know that girl," Nue said. There was only one conclusion to come to, especially after Marisa made the mention of an eye on the umbrella. The girl that Marisa had shouted to was _Kogasa_, who was now perfectly aware of Nue's situation, and who to find in order to get her out of it. Under any regular circumstances, Nue wouldn't approve of using Kogasa like this, but these circumstances were everything _but_ regular. Nue was here because she had discovered a conspiracy to control the fates of people in Tohohana, and that conspiracy involved putting Kogasa back on the streets and losing her best friend - probably her _only_ friend - in the world, to which Nue fought time and again. She could have been shot while in Ran's office, but apparently that wasn't part of Yukari's plot, whatever it was.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in the mayor****'****s office****…**

"I could have shot her," Ran said. "Why did you say not to?"

"I can see now that Nue will fight to the end to protect her friendship with Kogasa," Yukari said, sounding a little upset with herself. "I should have known she would from the beginning - I've been watching her since the day she was born - and while it's impossible for she and Kogasa to reach their ideal fates alongside one another, there are still a number of good fates for them if they remain together." More than there were without one another, in fact…

If Nue and Kogasa did not become friends, and had Nue not "adopted" Kogasa, there would have been only one fate for each. The current bassist in YHZ-Saga would have died on stage from a heart attack brought on by cocaine abuse, and with Nue playing bass guitar and knowing all the band's bass parts on top of being the niece of a current member, she would have been the best candidate to fill his shoes. Nue's lack of friends up to that point would have influenced her own personal style of playing and writing songs, and the personal spin she put on her predecessor's parts would have made the songs of YHZ-Saga massive hits. Eventually, she would become the new lead vocalist when her uncle began getting old, and her voice and bass skills would have made her a globally famous musician, and would have enjoyed limitless fame and adoration.

Kogasa, while still unable to read and write, would have discovered the knowledge eventually, though much later than she was thanks to Nue. After turning 23, Kogasa would have met a person whose job as a writer would have inclined him to teach Kogasa how to read and write. Had she learned from _this person_ rather than Nue, Kogasa would have learned the characters of the Japanese alphabet by reading poetry, and would have in turn taken to writing it as a way of keeping the knowledge fresh in her mind. Even if it was supposed to be on accident, the contents of her notebook of poems would have been discovered by the person teaching her to read and write, and, impressed by her talent with poetry, copies of her works would have been sent to a publishing company. Kogasa's troubled past would have been the fuel for her poems with a heavy emphasis on dark symbolism, and she would have become a global hit.

Then again, neither of those possibilities had a happy ending in particular. While they would have wonderful lives, both of them would have met unfortunate deaths. Nue, had she become the global sensation of a bassist/vocalist, would have a 97% chance of meeting a similar fate as the current YHZ-Saga bassist. The difference was that Nue, rather than having a heart attack, would have committed heinous crimes because of how heavily she'd been influenced, and would have died in a car wreck after trying to drive home from a massive party to celebrate her release years later, in which she would have gotten absurdly drunk.

Kogasa, because of the depressing nature of her poems, would have started to fall into a deep depression some months after getting her world fame. On the anniversary of her fame, she would have been discovered at the bottom of a swimming pool with a cinder block tied to her ankle, having committed suicide because of the depression she suffered from her own works…

On second thought - a phrase which never entered Yukari's mind - perhaps it was _better_ this way. "Hear me out, Ran," Yukari said as a gap formed itself. "Within two days, Nue Houjuu and Marisa Kirisame will escape from jail. Re-arrest Marisa if you so desire, but Nue is to remain free. I'd like to test her mettle one last time~" Of course, Yukari wouldn't tell this to Nue. The test specifically required that Nue remain under the impression that Yukari wanted to put Kogasa back on the streets. If Nue passed this final test of mettle, then the ideal fate of the two was truly to be friends with one another. If Nue were to fail, however, Yukari would make absolutely certain that the two never met again during the course of the test no matter how hard they sought out one another, even if it meant putting them at opposite ends of Japan.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in the abandoned frozen-goods warehouse****…**

It was cold in here. Nue had given her fair warning, but Kogasa had insisted to herself that this be where she hide, at least for the day. Now, however, she was developing frostbite thanks to the rain on her clothes turning to ice. If she didn't leave here soon, she'd probably freeze to death, so there was only one other option…

_"__Find the delinquents! Nature__'__s Little Delinquents! Tell them Kirisame and Houjuu are behind bars!__"_

Well, that was her plan from the start. First, she'd have to try people that she knew were close to Nue, so who better to start with than…

Her uncle?

* * *

**I like this reversal in particular, especially since the reversal is in the following chapter. I also enjoyed charting out those fates for Nue and Kogasa, even if writing their deaths wasn't as fun. So now, the way things look (to me) one of three things could happen at the end of this story.**

**A: Nue and Kogasa fail Yukari's test and meet their ideal fates. They die in unfortunate ways.**

**B: Nue and Kogasa pass Yukari's test and live happily ever after.**

**C: Nue and Kogasa fail Yukari's test and die during the testing process, be they alone or together.**

**No matter how you look at it, C is going to be a bittersweet ending, A is a bad end, and B is a good end. Now, people who know me probably know that I like writing good ends, but for quite some time, I've wanted to do a bittersweet or bad ending. I already know which ending is the real one, but I refuse to share details about it. Not even Azure will get the secrets out of me; not even for a Touhou bribe.**

**And a Touhou bribe can do wondrous things if used on the right people.**


	8. Chapter 8: A Scheme Shrouded in Violet

**Yukari's plan is revealed, and blah blah blah in this chapter!**

**We're getting awfully close to the climax now. No matter how much filler I add, it's going to happen within the next three chapters, so that's nice. It means we're drawing near the end of the story.**

**I think I should try to run my stories about 10 chapters a pop. Anything 15 and up seems to die out pretty fast unless it's one of my heavy-hitter fanfics like my first KaguMoko fic or Unexpected Expectation, or the sequel to the latter, even if it was never meant to be a sequel in the first place.**

**Plus the entire layout of who stood where in the world was completely different. Can we really count that one as a sequel? It's more like that the second story borrowed elements from the first one, then got a sequel in Never Alone.**

**But I digress to a ridiculous degree. I'm thinking that my next fanfic that takes place outside the quaint city of Tohohana is still going to be school-centered, but because it'd be a crossover with Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei.**

* * *

"Houjuu's absent," the teacher noted. "No surprise there. Blah blah blah, et cetera cetera…Tatara."

"Present." Yesterday hadn't been much of a success. She'd asked Uncle Hikaru about who Nature's Little Delinquents were, but all she got was the backstory and some advice…

* * *

_"Nature's Little Delinquents?" Now that was a name Hikaru hadn't heard in quite some time. "They were formerly a quartet of delinquent criminals, though Nue wasn't big in the crime scene then. The school counselors say that she picked up crime because of being ditched by the crew, but I can't say I know of any members beyond my niece and this Kirisame girl you mentioned. The best thing you could do is look for anybody at school who appears to be a delinquent, or anybody who looks like they might hang around with those kinds of folks."_

_"W-Wait, aren't you a little more worried, Mr. Hikaru? Nue's in jail!"_

_"Nue's clever. She'll find a way out, with or without help."_

* * *

"Alright," the teacher said. "Now then…"

_KNOCK, KNOCK!_ "My teacher sent me over here to drop this off," said a much larger student, carrying a few papers. Kogasa's eyes locked straight onto her. Or, more specifically, her _horn_. Not many people had those; Kogasa certainly never met any, and the air around this giant of a girl reeked of intentions that were less than good. Perhaps she knew something about this team that girl had shouted about yesterday?

"Excuse me, sir," Kogasa said, getting up to her feet. "I need to use the restroom." She lied. She felt bad about it, but Kogasa lied right to the teacher's face.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in Tohohana's jail…**

"…"

"…well, not that this sucks or anything," Nue said. "But this sucks."

"Got that right, ze." On top of the prison cell being rather cold, its walls and floor were all very hard, and the bed wasn't much softer. Neither of them slept last night, so the cell only seemed that much more uncomfortable. "How long are you here?"

"Probably until I die. You?"

"Ten years, ze. I'm betting Mima-sama's getting ready to bust me out, though."

"You're working under _her_?" Mima's name wasn't a small one in Tohohana, be you a criminal or not. She was, without any doubt, the single-most powerful criminal in all of Tohohana, and probably the entire Kanto region, if not all of Japan. To say the least, it was pretty impressive that Nue was sitting next to somebody working under such a powerful crime boss.

"Yep. So, how about this conspiracy you told me about yesterday? I want details, ze."

"Well, the mayor's involved. I think her kid might be in it, too, but she's kind of…" The mayor's adoptive daughter - Chen Yakumo - was…well, when people compared her smarts to Ran's, it was pretty clear that Chen was adopted. "You know?"

"Dumb? Yep. A lot of that Arctic Circle kid's friends are dumb, ze. They're almost all in Class 9-D, after all. Is anybody else in it?"

"The head of it all." _GU-DUNNNNNNNN…_ It was a sound effect probably in Nue's mind only, but she was all ready to tell Marisa that Yukari Yakumo was the mastermind of the conspiracy, and now her lack of sleep from last night hit her in the face like a semi truck. "It's all run by…_YAWWWWN…_" What was happening? It was like something was dragging Nue down into sleep, and she couldn't keep her eyes open no matter how hard she tried. "Y…"

"Nue, stay with me, ze!"

"…u…ka…ri…" _TUNK!_ Nue fell back onto the cold hard floor of the jail cell, out like a light bulb. She barely had the energy to finish telling Marisa who was behind it, and there was always the chance that there was another person in Tohohana named Yukari. Unfortunately, that meant that there was the chance that Marisa would never learn that Yukari Yakumo was the mastermind behind this supernatural conspiracy.

* * *

**Nue Houjuu's dream world…**

"You just can't leave well enough alone, can you?" Nue found herself sitting at a beautiful mahogany table, in an intricately carved chair of the same wood, with jade trimmings. On the table were dozens of extremely expensive foods and drinks, but the sight at the other end of the table was what confirmed Nue's suspicions. Sitting in another mahogany chair was a woman with blonde hair and radiant violet eyes. Yukari Yakumo, _AGAIN_. "It's one thing that you're defying me when you know it's pointless, but now you're trying to tell other people that I'm doing this for them? Tsk, tsk, tsk. What on earth am I going to do with you?"

"…"

"Well, don't be shy. Say something."

"People should know, right? That there's somebody helping them get a happy ending?"

"You're a delinquent, Nue. Not an ass-kisser. And no, people shouldn't know. I just give them little pushes now and then; about 98.637% of the effort to get a specific fate comes from the people themselves. Sometimes, however, when my little pushes aren't enough, I have to undergo what Ran and I have come to call _intervention._"

"Intervention?"

"A way of setting everybody back on track while handing down…what was that word you used the other day? Castigation?" Yukari's interventions often impacted the whole city of Tohohana, which was why she usually preferred to not resort to them. Most commonly, these were executed in the form of natural catastrophes, and the impact of some former interventions could still be seen in Tohohana today. A couple decades ago, the owner of the long-abandoned warehouse with the freakish cooler got greedy with his warehouse, and diverted too far from his ideal fate when he decided to own a string of warehouses. Yukari intervened by tinkering with the cooler a bit, making the warehouse too cold to be used for any means. Compared to the intervention she had in mind, that was absolutely nothing, if not less.

"How are you going to do that?"

"…Nue, listen to me, and listen well. On top of being an intervention to put you and Kogasa back on track, this is going to be something of a test. If both of you make it through the intervention - _alive and together_ - I will cease my attempts to force you into your ideal fate."

"A-Alive?"

"I'm not going to repeat myself; I hate doing that so. By the end of today, Kogasa will bring your old gang to the jail to release you. I've ordered Ran to let you remain a free girl. However, the day after your escape, a freak supercell is going to strike Tohohana."

"!"

"Not everybody in town is going to live. I assure you, there _will_ be at least 56 deaths, and twice as many injuries because of this supercell. In the event that you and Kogasa do not die, and the two of you can avoid being separated throughout the entire storm, I will erase all of your memories of me, and let the two of you craft your own fates."

"…"

"Keep in mind that in the event that you two are separated, and Kogasa gets caught in the storm, I have every intention of sending her so far away that your chances of finding her will be roughly 0.00748% at best. Presuming a flying piece of debris doesn't _kill_ her. So, is it a deal?"

"…absolutely not. Keep your supercell, or even better, shove it right up that ass of yours, and let me and Kogasa be happy dammit!"

"I'm going to go through with this intervention either way. Ran and Chen are already preparing to evacuate. You won't gain anything from turning this bet down, and if I were you, I'd accept the terms on the table."

"Then it's a deal."

"I hope you know of places capable of withstanding a supercell of the caliber that I'm preparing. Now then, you're about to have a visitor at your jail cell. Wake up, Nue. Tomorrow, our final battle begins~"

* * *

**Back into the waking world…**

"Uuu…how long was I out?"

"About seven hours, ze."

"Really?" It didn't feel like seven hours. It felt more like a couple of minutes to Nue. "Did we get any visitors?"

"Nope. I bet they're sending Sigma to bust me out, though, and I'm sure it'd be okay for you to tag along, ze."

"You're awfully certain that Mima's going to get you out, aren't you?"

"Absolutely. Why?"

"Just asking." _Tmp, tmp, tmp, tmp…_ That was the sound of footsteps. Somebody was coming. Was it a visitor? Nue couldn't see down the hall so good, but if she was hearing it right, there were three sets of feet coming this way. That added up pretty nicely with the rest of the gang plus Kogasa, so Nue was certain. It was time for a jailbreak. When the footsteps arrived, however, the first person Nue saw wasn't Mokou, Yuugi, _or_ Kogasa, but a cop. But then, following him, were both Yuugi and Kogasa. That meant that at least one of Nature's Little Delinquents had arrived to bust Nue out. Although, since this was Yuugi…

_KA-CHOP!_ With full force, Yuugi smacked the cop in the back of his neck, sending him straight out of consciousness. If this were Mokou, now would be the part where the cop's body was looted for the keys, and the cell door simply unlocked. Since it was Yuugi, however, things were going to be a tad different. Instead, Yuugi gripped two adjacent bars, not thinking about how cold the iron was. Then, with all her strength, Yuugi began pulling them in an attempt to tear them right out of the frame. It was ridiculous and very damaging, but that was Yuugi for anybody who knew her.

_…CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK…_

"She's actually doing it!"

"You can do it da ze!"

_CREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAA-KOOM!_ The two bars tore right out of the jail cell's frame, leaving a plenty big hole for Nue and Marisa to walk out through. Yuugi looked pretty out of breath, though. "_Haff_…haven't done that in a while. I'm all out of shape," she said. "Alright, you two boneheads, let's get out of here."

* * *

**Strong Yuugi is strong.**

**Even if she's not necessarily an oni in this fic (it seems Yukari is the only true youkai left) she's still got to be strong. It wouldn't be Yuugi otherwise.**

**So, with my (shitty) explanation out of the way, I'm not sure if I mentioned this location just yet (pretty sure I did) but did you know that Tohohana's Yuugi works at the local youth shelter? I really shouldn't say too much about her, since the next school story I plan on starting is a ParuYuugi pairing, and just saying where Yuugi works gave away a little bit of the unpredictable style I enjoy. Or, at least in the early chapters of that fic.**

**Looking back on Yukari's supercell plan, I think I may be an abuser of natural disasters as a writer. Out of everything I've written, the following fics have had natural disasters, or conditions very similar to them.**

**Extra Set of Hands (the freaky gate-crashing weather)**

**Poisonous Chinese Tea (See: Orci Mundis)**

**Unexpected Expectation (Sanae did it late in her arc)**

…**oh, I guess I don't abuse them as badly as I thought I did ^_^**

**A certain somebody wanted me to go extra-odd and throw a snowstorm at Tohohana instead, but snowstorms lack the destructive force of a supercell. Even when Yukari gets involved.**

**ESPECIALLY when Yukari gets involved!**


	9. Chapter 9: The Showdown Approaches

**And I still update more frequently than TakerFoxx XD**

**Kidding aside, TakerFoxx is a wonderful author who is probably my favorite on the website. But, this chapter has nothing to do with TakerFoxx~**

**The final showdown between Nue and Yukari is only one chapter away! The anticipation is killing me, and it's taking its toll on Nue. Looking back on this story, it's about Nue a lot more than it is about Kogasa, so to compensate for that, I'm going to try and get as much Kogasa content as possible in the next couple of chapters. It's just that one of my weaknesses as a writer is that I have trouble splitting a story between two people, so it often ends up more about one than the other. My recent KaguMoko fic had this problem, too…**

**But I digress. I've decided that the next Tohohana story is actually going to be a group story featuring Byakuren, Shou, Murasa, Mystia, Parsee, Orin, Rumia, Tokiko, and Wriggle. They don't have anything in common in Gensokyo, but here in Tohohana, there is one thing - or rather, one place - that connects them all. Here's a hint: Ran mentioned it once or twice in this story.**

* * *

"I never thought I'd be so happy just to be home again," Nue said, taking her first steps back into the Houjuu house. "Did Uncle Hikaru leave yet?" Typically, he left the evening before his tours to party with the band and the crew that worked behind their stage. Since this was their first _world tour_, the party would probably continue on the overnight airplane to America, where the first show was going to be. At least he was going to dodge whatever Yukari planned on throwing this way.

"Yeah. Do you want some dinner?"

"I'll cook," Nue said. She didn't want to say anything yesterday morning because Kogasa looked so happy with herself that she'd made food, but the heterochromatic girl was a very bad cook. "You just take it easy, alright?"

"_You_ should be the one taking it easy; you just got out of jail! I'm fine, really." She did have a bit of a blazing guilt in her gut, though, for leaving school early (Yuugi seemed fine with it) and for lying to the teacher this morning. It was all for the sake of helping Nue - a person Kogasa felt that she owed very deeply - but even then, she felt bad. Even further, Nue looked tense. Scared, even. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh?"

"You look scared." Pointing at Nue's eyes, Kogasa said "Usually, at least as far as I've known you, you've always got this kind of sharp and determined focus in your eyes, but that's not there. And I wouldn't notice it if your eyes were the same as usual, but your hands are shaking." Nue was certainly scared of something. Knowing Nue, she'd never admit it, but there was something scaring her. To scare _Nue_, it had to be something pretty horrible. Was somebody out for her life? It could have been that she said the wrong thing to the wrong prisoner, and they wanted revenge by killing Nue! Kogasa didn't think that was the case, but it wasn't something she was ready to rule out. "I'll cook."

"No. I've got it, okay? You just sit down and take it easy. A goody-two-shoes girl like you couldn't have enjoyed cutting out on school to help with a jailbreak." Nue used to be such a girl herself, and even did exactly that once, so she _knew_ it wasn't pleasant for people like that. Even if only for a little bit, Nue had to be alone with her thoughts, and - if she was willing to finally meet Nue in the waking world - Yukari. At first, her threat didn't sound that bad to Nue. Now, however, as tomorrow was drawing nearer and nearer, it was starting to scare her. At least 56 people - possibly people she knew, or maybe Nue herself - would die tomorrow, and Yukari sounded like she planned on turning this storm into freaking judgment day for Tohohana. Ordinarily, Nue would just tell herself something like "Yukari must really be a sore loser" and laugh it off, but it wasn't impossible that Nue's own life was in jeopardy, as well as Kogasa's. Nue would count herself lucky if she got any sleep tonight, and even more so if she didn't panic tomorrow.

_Ignite._ The stove had been switched on. Nue planned on just cooking something simple tonight. Ramen. She wasn't great in the kitchen by any means, but she was better than Kogasa, who seemed blissfully unaware of how bad her cooking was. If Kogasa wanted to cook breakfast tomorrow, though, Nue wasn't going to stop her. Thinking about that, though, only brought another worry to her mind. Yukari only said that she was going to hit Tohohana with a freak supercell tomorrow, but never specified _what time_ it would come. For all Nue knew, Yukari planned on playing dirty by hitting the town in the tiny hours of the morning, destroying Nue's house, killing the delinquent herself, and sending Kogasa away on the currents of the wind. Or maybe she'd do it late in the evening, when Nue's guard started to go down from a whole day of good weather. Perhaps Yukari would hit during school hours? Nue was barely able to focus on her cooking when she started thinking about all the times Yukari could hit her. Maybe she'd do it suddenly while either Nue or Kogasa was using the lavatory, and the other one was in the classroom? During lunch, maybe? There would be plenty of debris to throw around during lunch, for certain, including big lunch tables that could easily shatter bones if tossed around like that. Or, worst of all, what if Yukari intended to make Nue forget about the whole thing and strike while the two were coming home from school? Now Nue was terrified.

If Yukari could make Nue forget about the challenge set out for her, then she'd have no way of seeing it coming. That would make her odds of winning so low that she may as well have given up right then. Out of fear alone, part of her was considering begging Yukari for mercy and giving up…

_Part_ of her. She was still Nue Houjuu, Class 11-A's finest delinquent! She felt an obligation to protect Kogasa ever since learning of her former residence in a cardboard box, and she wasn't about to give up because of fear. Building her confidence back up piece by piece, Nue started making plans herself. She'd have to plan for any possible time that Yukari could hit her, and be ready for any situation. _I can do this_, she assured herself. _I'll beat Yukari, and keep Kogasa._

* * *

**Later; Nue Houjuu's bedroom…**

"Zzz…zzzz…" Nue was able to sleep well tonight. She was confident that she could beat Yukari, and she wanted to speak directly to the town's founder herself one last time before their final showdown. Evidence showed that thinking about Yukari in the time leading up to falling asleep was a good way to meet her in dreams…

"I hope you're ready," Yukari said, looking at Nue. This time, the landscape of Nue's dream was a solid cloud, floating hundreds of miles above Tohohana. "The supercell has now formed over the ocean, and is heading toward Tohohana as we speak." Yukari calculated exactly how fast it had to move to get there when she wanted. So far, it was going exactly according to her plan. While Yukari wasn't exactly a fair player, she had some standards when competing with mortals in this way. "I was looking into your thoughts from earlier. I don't plan on erasing your memories, since that would be _too_ unfair, and I won't strike while you're in school."

"It should be easy, then," Nue boasted.

"Will it? Would you like to hear the power you're up against?"

"U-Um…"

"Wind speeds - average speed of approximately 450 kilometers per hour, with gusts nearing 475 kilometers per hour. Rainfall - approximately one centimeter every sixty seconds. Several downbursts should be expected during the course of the storm, with wind speeds ranging over 500 kilometers per hour, and approximately fifty cloud-to-ground lightning bolts are expected to strike every sixty seconds."

"That's no supercell," Nue uttered, all her confidence fading away in an instant. "That's a damned apocalypse."

"I warned you. I warned you a number of times, and even tried to negotiate with you. If I cannot get you and Kogasa back on track peacefully, I must do it by force."

"Why are you doing this to us, anyway? This whole _ideal fate_ deal." It didn't sound like something Nue was willing to believe at first, and while she believed Yukari now - at least a little bit - she was getting ridiculous. It seemed to be all she talked about, and now she was willing to kill at least 56 people just because Nue refused to put Kogasa on the streets. Sure, being the next bassist in YHZ-Saga sounded cool, but if she had to pick between that and having somebody like Kogasa at her side, Nue was willing to throw her dreams out the window.

"You're not the first person to ask me that question, Nue." Like it did in the past encounters with Yukari, the scene around the two melted away to reveal a new place and time. "Because of your tenacity, even in the face of this catastrophic storm, I'm going to give you a rare prize. The truth about Tohohana." The scene surrounding the two now was one that Nue had actually seen in real life once before. Tohohana's old town, with all its glorious architecture that still stood strong after 1,300 years.

However, Nue didn't recognize any of the people here. They all looked like they fit in with feudal Japan, not unlike old town itself, and Nue's only conclusion was that this was Tohohana itself 1,300 years ago. "The truth, huh? Let's hear it."

"Some time ago, the local newspaper detailed what was simply called the Tohohana Phenomenon. Certain individuals living in this town are simply drawn to it for unknown reasons. I'm sure you'll find that you yourself are such an individual, as is Kogasa. The people who are susceptible to this Tohohana Phenomenon are, in truth, reincarnated. Each of them was somebody else in their past life, and so on, dating back to 1,300 years ago. When this town was first founded, it had a couple-hundred residents."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Those initial residents are the ones who bargained with me to create Tohohana in the beginning, and another condition was that their souls be left under my care. The souls of those susceptible to the Tohohana Phenomenon were once the initial residents of the city itself. I've been watching over all of you for 1,300 years, guiding all of you back to this town each time you're reborn, and whenever one can be found, pushing you to the fate that will make you happiest." Not every person was gifted with an ideal fate. Marisa Kirisame, for instance, was destined for the same fate no matter how one looked at it. Someday, she'd inherit Mima's crime empire, so all her possible fates were truly the same one. Some people had no truly happy fates, like Layla Prismriver, who was destined to lose the use of her legs and most of the strength in all of her other muscles, or die. She was alive, but her three sisters were all going to move on someday, leaving a crippled Layla by herself. "The few who can be gifted with a happy life are lucky. I try to bestow that gift upon them, but sometimes, they fight back. Our final showdown is coming closer and closer, Nue. I leave you here for your dream tonight, so that you can experience Tohohana when it was first built. A final act of mercy before it is completely destroyed."

"W-Wait! You said you built this town! Why destroy it now, just because some delinquent is against you?"

"This isn't about you," Yukari spat. "The very first Hakurei was the one most responsible for the negotiations of this town, and I'd told her many times that this town would not last forever. Eventually, we agreed upon 1,300 years being the lifespan of Tohohana. The exact age of this town is 1,306 years, 4 months, and 15 days. Your defiance was timed exactly when I planned it to, and it was through that plan that our final showdown could coincide with Tohohana's last day. If you can truly survive your hometown's last day on earth, I can personally arrange for new lives both for you and Kogasa, wherever you please. I will do the same for anybody else that manages to survive tomorrow, albeit in a much more discreet manner, so consider where you'd like to live in the future while you fight for your life and Kogasa's tomorrow."

"…" Yukari upped the stakes. Initially, she only said she was going to separate Nue and Kogasa. Now she planned to actively try and _kill_ both of them. Even further, she seemed ready to completely destroy Tohohana. Fear was setting back in for Nue, and as Yukari faded away from her dream, all she could do was look at her hometown when it was first built 1,300 years ago. Everybody looked happy. As far as she was able to tell, most people were happy with their lives in Tohohana as it was today. Now she planned on throwing that town away, as well as what she said would be at least 56 lives. Judging by Yukari's attitude toward all this, Nue would count herself lucky if Tohohana's population after the showdown was anything higher than two.

* * *

**Did you know that Nue and Kogasa are the only characters listed as being in Class 11-C?**

**There's also no listed students (meaning actual Touhou characters) in 9-C, 10-B, 10-D, or 12-D, and only one student listed student each in 10-C and 11-B (Lyrica and Murasa respectively)**

**12-A has the most listed students, adding up to a total of six. With three perfect pairings (Kaguya/Mokou, Reimu/Sanae, Marisa/Alice) no less :D**

**I figured that since the next Tohohana story isn't a school story, it'd be cool to drop some fun trivia about the school. I believe that this AU city is quickly becoming my own personal mark on the Touhou section of this website, and it's good that I've found a mark to make.**

**At first, the truth about Tohohana was going to be that everybody is actually reincarnated from actual Gensokyo residents, but that was pushing the limits of an AU just a little too much. Not to mention I'd have to do tons of explaining for Mokou, Kaguya, Eirin, Yuyuko, and other deceased/immortal characters. Plus, if that were it, this chapter would probably get titled "Reincarnation" and then Mima would show up out of friggin' nowhere in the next one, godly powers fully intact. Then I'd hate this fic XD**

**Then I'd hate myself for doing that to my quaint little city.**

**Destroying it via supercell is fine, of course~**


	10. Chapter 10: The Showdown, Part 1

**Okay, update time. I've done some cleaning out in my fanfics folder, removing the stories that had no hope of seeing another chapter. The following stories, if anybody still reads them, might, MIGHT have some hope of an update sometime in the unforeseeable future.**

**Every Tohohana story, A Magician's Chronicle, Extra Set of Hands, Ibuki Miko, The White Wolf Tengu, and of course, my new MokoMyschi fic entitled Fried Birds, Broiled Fish**

**For the most part, my comedy works seem to still have some hope of an update. However, the Tohohana niche I've found for myself feels very much like where I belong in this fanon, so don't depend on my Gensokyo stories seeing an update. Just don't rule out the above ones, that's all.**

**Now then, this chapter.**

**Two songs that work especially well for bringing out the tension of this chapter are Fires of Hokkai from the UFO soundtrack, but also a track from Legend of Zelda. Listen to Majora's Mask's song, Final Hours, if you want to hear what I was hearing when I wrote this. If you want to hear what I heard while writing this note, on the other hand, ask me about a Power Rangers remix I wrote ^_^**

**But enough about that. Here's that long-awaited update~**

* * *

**The day of the showdown; 6:30...**

* * *

_THUD!_ The typical "faceplant-to-wake-up" method had been employed once again. This time, though, Nue's first target wouldn't be the kitchen to soothe her growling stomach. It was a remote for her tiny television. When it lit up with power, Nue started flipping through the channels. If a monster storm like Yukari had whipped up was coming this way, it would be on every news station. If she was lucky, the newscasters would know exactly when it would strike, but knowing Yukari, she'd speed it up or slow it down if she knew that Nue knew. Maybe she wouldn't, but it was best to not rule it out. When Nue finally found a news station, she sat back and listened to what had to be said about the storm that would end Tohohana.

_"Officials say that such a supercell has not been seen before, partially in its sheer force and partially in its odd behaviors. While the conditions are staying constant, the speed of the storm itself has been changing constantly since last night. As such, we're unable to predict exactly when it will strike. All schools in the Kanto region and the whole of the Chubu region, save those in Niigata Prefecture, have closed for the day, and evacuations are underway. In other news…"_

"Closed for the day," Nue said to herself, switching off the TV. "Great." Yukari _did_ say she wouldn't strike while Nue was at school. This was probably just a final cruel joke on her part before she prepared to obliterate this city. With any luck, Nue and Kogasa both would get through this just fine. Kogasa was learning to read and write okay, and was able to write down basic things. The longest full sentence Kogasa had written so far was about schoolwork, and was about equal to "My dog ate my homework this morning before I got to school." She'd also taught Kogasa other words that were big in her mind lately. However, when Nue looked at the bedroom door where Kogasa was just last night, she found it wide open, with a yellow note attached.

_Couldn't sleep last night. Went to school early. Kogasa._

"…" Yukari planned this. Nue was certain. She was able to make Nue very tired and drag her into sleep while she was in jail just yesterday, so who was to say that she couldn't do the exact opposite to somebody overnight? If Kogasa had already left, she wouldn't know about the current happenings, and unless she'd been found and evacuated - in which case Nue could kiss her chances of seeing Kogasa goodbye - she would be obliviously at the front doors of the school, waiting for them to open. "Wonderful way to start a day," Nue sarcastically seethed to herself as she ran downstairs. She'd need to grab a quick breakfast and pack two backpacks of supplies to hold herself and Kogasa over for the day. She'd been planning all night last night, so she knew that as long as she could meet up with Kogasa again before anything hit, she would get through this okay. Yet, Nue felt as though she was missing a very important part of her plan…

* * *

**Thirty minutes later; front doors of Tohohana High…**

"It's raining…" _I wish I brought my umbrella. Not that I dislike the rain or anything._ Just that going into school with a wet uniform wasn't the best start to a day. It wasn't raining when Kogasa first got here, but it was now. The sky was dark despite the morning hour, though Kogasa had no way of knowing what time it was. If she did, she'd say "Wow, I've been up for a really long time!" She didn't really look tired, but it was probably far from her first time pulling an all-nighter. The years in the box came to mind.

"**Kogasa!**"

"Huh?" When the heterochromatic girl turned to see who was calling her name, a smile broke out. It was Nue! She had her own school bag around her neck, one backpack over each shoulder, and what looked like the mini-TV from her bedroom in her hands. The whole load looked pretty heavy to Kogasa, but it probably wasn't as heavy as she was thinking if Nue could still run fine. "Hey there! Why'd you bring your TV to school?"

"Forget that, get outta the way!" Nue would probably have one good shot at this. The school doors were locked until hours started. Since they were glass, Nue's plan was to take her TV and throw it through the doors, shattering the glass. She wasn't really sure what to do after that, but it just seemed like a good idea. Plus, it would help relieve a lot of the stress brought on by impending doom, which was always nice. With the weight and toughness of the TV plus the running momentum Nue would have, it should have been enough to break through the doors. That was why, the instant Kogasa figured it out and ran out of the way, Nue released her TV, and let it fly. If she hit the walls of the school, the TV would probably break. That was why she only had one good shot.

_CRASH!_ Success!

"**You broke the doors in!**"

"They're gonna get destroyed today anyway," Nue said, taking one of the backpacks off her arms and handing it to Kogasa. "Tohohana's probably getting wiped off the map today."

"Huh!?"

"The mother of all natural disasters is coming this way. There's food and stuff in that bag, but eat sparingly, okay? We may need to stay sheltered all day." Nue's plan was flawless, really. Even so, there was still this notion that she was forgetting something important in her plan…

"The _MOTHER_!?" Now Kogasa looked a nervous wreck. To her experience, homes got destroyed or blown away in regular disasters. Even if this was only because cardboard boxes were her basis for judging these things, the sound of what Nue was saying didn't sound so great. "Th-Then…you've got a plan, right?"

"Of course! You don't think I'd just let this kind of thing have its way with you, do you?" Taking her first steps into the school, Nue said "The plan was that I pack up food and other things in these backpacks, and find you. After that, we'd take shelter away from everybody else for the duration of this monstrosity, and be a-okay when it's over."

"Good plan. So…where's this shelter?"

"It's…it's…"

"…"

"Crap!" _I knew I was forgetting something!_ Nue forgot where the two would take shelter! That was _THE_ most important part of this plan, and she completely forget to take it into account! Without a sufficient safe spot, the two wouldn't stand a chance against Yukari's final challenge, and would get killed! "I have no idea!"

"Uh-oh."

"Deep breaths," Nue said, taking a few of them herself. "We just need to figure it out before things get too bad to go anywhere." Sitting herself down away from the pieces of shattered glass on the floor, Nue put herself into thinking mode. Where could the two go to hide from mother nature? Or more accurately, where could they go to hide from Yukari? If her impressions of the situation were right, no average shelter would suffice. Evacuations were already underway, but if Kogasa and Nue got evacuated, it'd be discovered that Kogasa was still homeless by all legal definitions, and the two would get separated. In that case, Yukari would win. Therefore, this was something Nue had to figure out herself.

If her intuition was any indicator, and the tense feeling in her gut, it would take too long to reach her house again. Even if they got there, what would that place do? Lose its windows and throw shattered glass all over the place, cutting the two to death? Aside from sounding like some kind of nightmare to Nue, that didn't seem like a pleasant end at all. What other places was she familiar with? Jail? If the two hid behind bars, the jail was underground. When town hall got devastated, the two would drown when the jail flooded. That didn't sound fun either.

"U-Um, Nue?"

"Hold up. Trying to think of how to save the day." Her house was out of the question, as was jail. Ironically, the two could have always hidden in the youth shelter. It was two stories high, and it _did_ have pretty tight lockdown measures in case of an emergency. But…if they hid there, and it's current residents chose the same hiding place, Kogasa would inevitably share her story while chatting with everybody. That had the same outcome as being evacuated. Maybe the two could just run away? _…impossible. We'd have to get out of the entire Kanto region, and that's not easy from Chiba Prefecture. By the time we were out of this prefecture, let alone the Kanto region, the storm would hit, and Kogasa and I would lose._

"_Nue?_"

"Just give me a second, Kogasa. Not trying to put you on hold, but this is a life-or-death thing." The school wasn't too bad of a shelter. Only, it had tons of windows and doors, so if things got especially nasty, shattered glass and ravaged wood would go flying everywhere. That meant that Kogasa and Nue could get killed by glass cuts, or impaled by a stray piece of wood. Neither of those sounded like a good way to go. Maybe a warehouse? Those were always pretty big, with plenty of spare room! Alas, those were too far away to reach in a reasonable time, and if a car or something got blown through the walls…Nue didn't even want to visualize her bones and Kogasa's getting shattered by a car thrown astray slamming into them. For some minutes that felt like hours, Nue kept going over potential shelters, but then realizing how they would fail to suffice in the end. Slowly, she was losing her hope of winning this.

"Nue…"

"Okay. What's wrong?"

Pointing out the door to the increasingly black sky, Kogasa said "I think it's getting closer."

"Dammit!" It was raining pretty heavily outside too, and Nue could feel the wind blowing in through the now-empty doorway. She'd have two - maybe three - minutes left, if the current conditions could be used as any measurement source. Looking to Kogasa, who seemed more and more afraid with each second, Nue said "Sit down, alright? I want to say something to you."

"Okay."

Only when Kogasa was sitting next to Nue, opposite the door, did Nue begin saying what she wanted to say. "The truth is, I've been hiding something from you. Yukari Yakumo - our town's mythological founder - is very much real. She's been trying to make me throw you back out onto the streets, so that you can someday become a world-famous poet."

"I can barely read or write, though!"

"That's what I told her. Anyway, when we went to town hall, my real objective was to talk to the mayor. She told me the same crap Yukari was giving me - that throwing you out would make us live happy lives - and when I refused, _she_ had me thrown in jail." It felt as though with every passing word, the storm drew nearer and nearer. Maybe Yukari's way of warning Nue to not share the truth? Typical. "This supercell is Yukari's doing, and she said that if you and I could live through it, she'd let us start new lives together somewhere else, since Tohohana's getting destroyed completely today. I tried to think of a plan to survive today, but I forgot about where to shelter ourselves. So, I guess this is probably our last day alive. Weird, right? I've been protecting you all this time without you even knowing it, but now when I'm finally confessing to everything, I can't even protect _myself._'

"But, I had an idea."

"…say what, now?"

"Since you busted in the school doors, couldn't we just go hide in the girls' locker room? You said it was really safe the day you took me in, so I figured, why not?"

"…"

* * *

**Well, I tried to make it kind of funny despite the tension.**

**The punchline is at the end of the chapter, as a punchline should be, and I find it silly that when Nue's given up all hope of surviving, Kogasa comes out with an idea that Nue herself gave her in the early chapters of this fic. She DID say it could come in handy someday~**

**The only real hard part about this fic so far was getting this chapter right. From here, it should actually be pretty easy.**

**My original idea was to have Kogasa mention the locker room outside, and the two would struggle against an increasingly powerful weather to get around to the side of the school. I'm still not all that great as a writer, though, so I avoided doing such since I feel as though I couldn't capture that kind of thing properly. Instead, I did what you've just read, since I can get a scene where the otherwise-confident character finally loses hope, but then out of nowhere her cute friend has the idea that saves the day.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Expect an update sometime relatively soon, okay? The rest of this fic should be easy; I've only got 2-4 chapters left~**


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